


Bump in the Road

by FireSoul



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-10 22:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 96,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7011373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was not part of the plan. Not one of them ever planned on this happening, and they certainly didn't plan on it happening here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 takes place between "Last Refuge" and "Leviathan"

It should've been a problem free fight.

The year was currently 1901, and they were in some Colombian village where Savage was currently hiding out. That's how the man managed to stay hidden throughout all of history despite placing himself near people of power; he moved to the other side of the world every decade or so.

Long story short the team had tried stealing some information that was about to be used to place their enemy a little to close to the top of Colombian government and of course that would have deadly consequences for some people. They got caught, as usual, and so the fight had ensued. It's only 1901, so the attackers hardly had effective weapons, but what they lacked in firepower the more than made up for in numbers. Sara was surrounded, taking out her attackers with her Bo, when things started going wrong. She could feel herself getting tired, far more quickly than she normally does, but then it got worse. Her world started spinning. In a matter of seconds she had gone from her usual, razor sharp, focus to barely being able to see straight. She felt like she was going to pass out, and that is exactly what happened.

"Sara!" Ray called out, he wasn't far from the blonde and saw her go down, and he saw that it wasn't one of Savage's men who took her out. At first he was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him, that there is no possible way Sara Lance just fainted in the middle of a fire fight. But the how or why she was down didn't exactly matter right now, what mattered was that Savage's men were about to make sure she never woke up.

One of them aimed his gun at her chest, and before Ray could react a trail of blue fury froze the man where he stood. That was when Ray noticed that Snart was running away from his own fight and hurrying to hold off anyone who dare attack Sara while she's down.

_"Yet he claims they're just friends,"_ Ray thought to himself as he finally snapped out of his daze and returned to helping Snart, Rory, and Firestorm hold off the guards.

"Kendra, grab Sara and get back to the Waverider!" He shouted over to his fiancée, he loves being able to call her that, as she hurried over to their fallen teammate.

.  
.  
.

"What happened to her?!" She shouted in alarm, not being able to find any visible injuries on Sara.

"Ask Gideon!" Snart shouted back and she nodded, she then scooped up Sara's limp form in her arms, spread her wings, and took off.

"What happened?!" Rip demanded to know when Kendra flew into the ship with Sara in her arms, the fact that Sara's eyes were dazed and half lidded is what really had him worried.

"I don't know, I didn't see her go down." Kendra explained in a panic as she retracted her wings and set Sara on her feet, though the other woman still leaned heavily on her.

"I, I, I fainted." Sara supplied, despite the cloudiness of her mind and the tired slur of her words there was still one emotion beyond relevant on her face; worry.

That worry was replicated in the form of Rip and Kendra's stunned faces; clearly neither of them had expected to hear it wasn't a guard who had taken her out.

"Get her to the med bay," The Captain finally ordered Kendra, bringing her back to reality along with himself, Sara seemed to perk up a little bit as well.

Kendra nodded and began helping Sara along, although the other woman tried to walk on her own it didn't go well and it reminded Kendra of leading along a drunk Mick, something they have all done by now.

"What do you think caused it?" Sara asked, her voice still slurring the words but they were a little more clear and she was able to make eye-contact this time, so Kendra marked those things down as belonging to the plus category.

"I don't know, but I'm sure it's nothing." Really, she wasn't totally lying. Yes, the fact that Sara had fainted at all was downright terrifying, but the fact that she seemed to be bouncing back gave Kendra hope that it might not be anything they need to worry about. "Just sit down," she said in as calm and nurturing of a voice as she could manage as she led Sara over to the medical chair.

Sara followed Kendra's orders and instantly she felt better. Her still dizzying world suddenly snapped back into focus and she could think clearly again. It was like all she needed to do was sit down. She briefly contemplated the idea of not even bothering to have Gideon run a scan, but even if she decided on that idea it was too late.

"Gideon, can you scan Sara and figure out why she fainted during our fight?" Kendra requested whilst taking off her helmet, glad to let her hair fall back into place.

"Of course Miss Saunders," The AI's robotic voice rang out and not even a second later a line of blue light was roaming it's way over Sara's body. "Miss Lance appears to be suffering from minor dehydration as well as slight hypoglycemia," both women became extremely nervous for a second before they remembered that hypoglycemia is the medical term for low blood sugar, meaning Sara simply hadn't eaten enough today. "Her blood stream is also lacking in the recommended amount of Folic acid, I can administer an IV and prescribe some prenatal vitamins as treatment."

The room went silent.

Sara and Kendra, despite the obvious differences in their personalities, had the exact same reaction. Their eyes had gone wide and their eyebrows had shot up to their hairlines.

"Gideon," Sara finally managed to say, albeit in a shaky voice. "Why would I need prenatal vitamins?" God she was hoping there's another use for those than the one she knows.

"It appears, Miss Lance, that you are seven and a half weeks along in the gestation process known as pregnancy." The AI's ever-chipper voice was obviously unaware of just how disastrous this news was and while Kendra's eyes actually managed to widen more, a feat that shouldn't have been physically possible, Sara's just closed and she all but slammed her head back against the chair with a sigh.

"Sara?"

"It was one time," Sara sighed in defeat as a response to Kendra's question, but before she could go any further into detail, which she did not want to do, Rip's voice came shouting down the hall.

"We have to jump now!" He screamed towards the med bay, Kendra looked to Sara as if to ask if she even wanted to go but the blonde was already getting up from her seat.

"Sara-"

"Just please, don't say anything, not now." She practically begged and Kendra nodded.

"Of course," she agreed and with that the two ran off for the bridge.

.  
.  
.

They arrived on the bridge, Sara's head now spinning for a whole new set of reasons, and when Kendra sat down next to Ray that left only one seat open for her; the one next to Snart.

"You ok?" He asked as she slid into the vacant chair, only looking slightly rattled, and pulling down her restraint.

"Fine, I was just dehydrated." She replied, loud enough so that the others would hear and not question her later, but then of course they jumped.

Time jumping had always felt like a rollercoaster to Sara, a really intense rollercoaster. First there are the restraints that seemed to have actually come from a rollercoaster, but then there was the fact that it always sent her stomach dropping. This time, with the knowledge that she could (could because she can't bring herself to admit that Gideon had said she IS pregnant) have an actual baby inside of her, it felt a thousand times worse. When they landed she felt everything she normally feels: the utter relief in her heart, the blinding light as her eyes adjust, the headache, and the nausea. But this time the nausea was worse than the headache, which it almost never is. It's not just from the jump this time; it's from what just happened five minutes ago in the med bay. It's what Gideon told her, the earth shattering diagnosis the AI had given her had been more than enough to make her feel like there was a rock in her stomach, and the jump back or maybe even forward who knows how many years did NOT help. So before she knew it she was hunched over, heaving up her lunch.

"Vomiting is another side effect of time travel, I'm honestly amazed it took one of you this long to have it." Rip said in his usual urgent voice, Sara assumed he was hurrying off to the control table.

Just as she was finishing she felt Snart's hand awkwardly pat her back, clearly he didn't know what to do but also felt guilty standing up and leaving her to be sick.

That only made her gut twist more.

"There, there." He said awkwardly before she began to straighten up. She made eye contact with him and instantly regretted it; she could tell that he was worried. She's worried too, and she couldn't let him see that, so she got up and headed over to the control table with him not far behind her.

Rip explained that they were currently somewhere in the middle ages, he said something about Savage and something about something else that Sara paid no attention to. She was far too distracted by her thoughts.

_"It appears, Miss Lance, that you are seven and a half weeks along in the gestation process known as pregnancy." _Gideon's robotic voice was on a torturous loop in her head, the words playing over and over despite the many times she tried to silence them.__

"Sara?" Rip, thankfully, cut through her thoughts and brought her back to reality when he realized that she wasn't paying attention. "Are you ok?" He continued to ask, it was only then that Sara noticed Kendra eyeing her nervously.

"Yeah," she said, standing up straight and noticing just how heavily she had been leaning on the table. "Can I go back to the med bay? Gideon didn't get around to giving me an IV before we had to jump." She explained, suddenly her skin felt cold and clammy and she thought that she might faint again.

"Of course," Rip replied, "Mr. Snart can you bring her, make sure she gets there?" He asked, looking at Sara he could see all the color had left her face.

Snart nodded and despite how much Sara wanted to insist that she could make it to the med bay on her own she couldn't think clearly enough to argue, so instead she just set off with Snart trailing behind her.

"So, do you want to tell me why you really fainted?" Snart asked as the two of them entered the med bay.

"What?" Sara asked, taking a seat on the chair while he headed over to the IV stand.

"You're a trained assassin who went through the training twice, you're not stupid enough to forget to drink enough water." He pointed out as he administered the IV to her.

"Rookie mistake I know, but it happens to the best of us." She excused and to be fair she wasn't totally lying, dehydration was indeed the reason she fainted, among other things.

Truth of not Snart didn't seem to believe it.

"Nice try," he said,

"Look can you just leave me alone Snart?" She snapped impatiently, and she didn't mean to, but she was having a hard enough time wrapping her head around Gideon's diagnosis without him interrogating her.

At first he looked slightly taken back by her outburst, and despite the guilt that she felt for it she still held his gaze with a determined glare, until finally he let what almost turned into a staring contest end.

"Yeah," he said and walked out of the room.

Sara let out a sigh once he was gone, running one hand over her face. What was she going to do? What could she do?

Sleep, that's what she could do. She could take a nap and allow the IV to get her system back on normal levels. She could go to sleep and let her head clear, and then she'd wake up and be able to deal with… the situation.

She kept her right arm, the one with the IV needle protruding from it, at her side and almost set her left hand on her stomach like she normally does when she sleeps on her back but she stopped herself. Her hand just hovered over it for a moment, hovering over it as if the skin beneath her shirt was on fire and she didn't want to burn herself. Eventually she gave a sigh of defeat and used the arm as a pillow instead; right now she couldn't bear to even think about it.

.  
.  
.

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you," It was Kendra's presence and apologetic voice that she awoke to, the other woman was standing in the doorway of the med bay.

"No, don't worry." Sara yawned as she rubbed her eyes and sat up, looking over at the clock and realizing that she had been asleep for nearly two hours. "I needed to get up." She continued before disconnecting the IV from herself.

The room was quiet for a minute, Kendra just standing in the door and Sara sitting on the medical bed staring into space.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kendra finally asked but Sara shook her head,

"Not right now," she mumbled, to be honest she wanted to never talk about it, but that isn't going to be an option.

"Ok," Kendra said understandingly, she knew that this had to be a lot for Sara to take in.

"I don't believe in abortion," The blonde finally said after another minute or two of silence, Kendra looked up to see her finally meeting her eyes. "I just, I don't…" She trailed off, and Kendra saw that there were tears pooling up in the corners of her eyes.

"So-"

"I don't know," Sara cut her off, her voice cracking with the tears. She's far from being an expert on pregnancy; she gave up all plans of ever having children after Lian Yu and never thought she would need to know. But she took child development in high school and still remembers a little. She remembers something about a baby, or fetus, or whatever it's scientifically called at this point, develops a heartbeat at six weeks. According to Gideon she's seven and a half weeks along, meaning that her baby has a heartbeat.

Her baby.

She, Sara the White Canary Lance, has a baby inside of her.

It was then that Kendra finally moved from her spot and came to sit beside Sara on the chair, but the instant she did Sara stood up. She could feel her walls coming down, _crashing _down actually, like a huge earthquake had erupted through her mind and demolished everything inside.__

"I'm gonna go to my room," she announced as she left.

She walked briskly down the hall, with no idea where the rest of the team was but very grateful that none of them seemed to be around. When she finally reached her room the first thing she did was lock the door, and then she lost it.

She fell to her knees, a powerful and strangled sob finally being allowed escape from her throat. She wrapped her arms around herself and cried, eventually falling onto her side and curling into what she was going to call armadillo position, because no way was she using the word _fetal. _While she was lying there the sight of one of her knives caught her eye, and she got onto a horrible and unwanted train of thought.__

She's killed.

She has murdered people. Not just in the heat of the moment, in the middle of the fire, but set out with a plan to murder someone in cold blood. How could a person like that ever possibly be a mother?

Sara felt herself starting to cry harder at the thought, and suddenly she didn't want to be alone anymore. She pushed herself up off her floor and unlocked the door before marching out into the hallway, desperately in need of help.

.  
.  
.

Kendra was sitting on her and Ray's bed reading a book; Ray was down in the brig with Mick. Apparently Mick could've broken out of that cell any time he wanted and so the two of them were now adjusting the room's security measures. They had been down there for a while now so when the door opened it was Ray she expected to see, not Sara. Furthermore she never in her life, or in any life, expected to see Sara with her face red, eyes puffy, and tears streaming down her cheeks. The two women just stared at each other for a minute, before Kendra made the first move by setting down her book and sitting up a little straighter. Sara responded to this almost immediately, and she did so by running the short distance across the room and crawling onto the bed. She curled up and leaned heavily into Kendra's side as the other woman put her arm around her. Sara pressed her face against her friend's chest and cried hard, Kendra wrapped her in a fuller hug.

"It's ok," she found herself murmuring as she gently smoothed Sara's golden hair. "It's ok," she continued.

It didn't help; in fact Sara's sobs actually grew louder. The sheer amount that she was trembling had Kendra worrying more than she already had been earlier. Obviously this was not something Sara had planned on happening, but Kendra thought that Sara of all people could be strong through it. No, it was more than that. When Gideon gave the diagnosis she had expected Sara to be strong, because with Sara there is no other way. She adjusts, she adapts, she shuts herself off while she processes reality and then she deals with it. There are no emotions involved unless she wants there to be; that is how she functions. She never, EVER, breaks down. Sure, she's seen Sara upset or angry before; the woman does HAVE emotions after all. But this is more than being a little upset; this is a full-blown meltdown.

Just then, Ray came in. But Sara didn't seem to notice and he stopped short upon seeing the scene inside the room. Kendra didn't speak, just shot him a look that asked he leave them alone and not tell anybody what he's seen. He nodded and closed the door; off to keep himself busy somewhere else until Sara's dealt with whatever she needs Kendra's help dealing with.

"It's ok," Kendra muttered again, but the truth is, it isn't ok.

Sara's already told her that she doesn't believe in abortion, meaning that whether she keeps it or not in the end she is having this baby.

This baby.

Sara Lance, The White Canary, the absolute toughest member of the team in Kendra's opinion, is having a baby.

It's almost too much for Kendra to believe, so she can only imagine how hard it must be for Sara to get her head around. If her relentless stream of tears is any indication then it must be pretty hard, if not impossible. It was a long while before the blonde finally began to calm down, and a while longer before either she or Kendra said anything.

"I'm not cut out to be a mom," it was Sara, surprisingly, who broke the silence.

"Sara that's crazy," Kendra assured her as her friend pulled out of their hug and sat to look her in the eyes.

"Is it?" She asked, truly seeming to believe that she can't be a mother. "Even putting aside the fact that I'm ex-assassin on a manhunt through time, I just spent the past half hour curled up against you crying like I'm a baby, there is no way I'm qualified to have one." She continued, her eyes were still wet and slightly puffy from all the crying but her voice was back to its normal strength so Kendra put that as a good sign.

Much as Kendra wanted to argue, she could tell that her efforts would be futile. Sara isn't meaning what she's saying, not to say that she won't mean it later on, but right now the words are coming from denial that this is even happening and not her true confidence in her maternal abilities.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked but Sara only shrugged,

"What's there to talk about?" She asked; Kendra gave a deep sigh.

"Well for starters…" she trailed off, Sara biting her lower lip with an embarrassed smile as her she closed her eyes and nodded.

"Yeah," she agreed, that was a good and necessary place to start.

"You said it was only one time?" Kendra asked once her friend had opened her eyes and appeared ready to have this conversation, or ready to force herself to have it anyway.

"Yeah," she replied with another nod, "It was one time."


	2. Should've Known in the Bar

_They had just left 1960 and were set to head off to 2146 as their next destination. But first, especially after all the damage Mick caused as Chronos, they needed to stop at a service station to get fuel for the Waverider._

_The station was in a place outside of time, in some sort of pocket dimension of the temporal zone. It was a place where time pirates often stopped to refuel their ships, because no way could Rip stop anywhere a Time Master might stop._

_"Now the Time Masters have no doubt placed a huge bounty on our heads so please TRY not to draw too much attention to yourselves." Rip had stressed as they were getting off the ship, leave it to time pirates to find an abandoned service station next to a bar._

_Everyone promised to listen, if not to keep themselves safe then to avoid a lecture from Rip that the three who have been stranded are in no rush to get back to hearing. So while Rip attempted to get some fuel for the ship the rest of the team crowded around a table in the musty bar, all except for a certain captain of cold. While the rest of the team sat around their table Snart sat off at the back corner of the counter, having downed three shots of whiskey by the time Sara made her way over to him._

_"Want some company?" She asked and he looked up at her with pupils just starting to dilate from the alcohol, but not quite yet unfocused in a drunken haze._

_"Sure, why not?" He agreed after a moment or two of thoughtful consideration._

_Sara took a seat on the vacant stool next to him and ordered a shot for herself, Snart watched as she downed it greedily._

_"Not much alcohol in the league of assassins?" He asked with observation,_

_"Only on special occasions, and definitely not enough to get drunk." She informed and he nodded._

_"Well if you're looking to get drunk tonight I think it's only fair to warn you that I won't be in any condition to take care of you." He said as she downed another shot and nodded._

_"I don't blame you, after today." She mused and he didn't say anything. They each ordered another shot and took them, remaining quiet for a good few minutes after that. "How's your hand?"_

_Len looked his newly replaced appendage over when she asked; it still felt a strange mix of foreign and familiar to him._

_"Alright," he finally answered in a drawl, "Not the worst thing that's happened today," he continued and when Sara didn't reply he decided to keep talking. "You knew I didn't kill him, didn't you?" He asked and she allowed herself a small grin as she ordered another shot for each of them._

_"Yeah, I knew." She admitted; they each took their shot._

_"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked, tracing his fingers over the rim of his glass._

_Sara shrugged, "Thought you might deny it," she replied, "Figured that you'd tell me, or someone else, when you were ready." She replied and he smirked._

_"Trust me Sara, you're the only one I would've trusted with that secret." He assured her and she smirked a little, pleased to hear this. "But, doesn't matter now, the cat's out of the bag." He continued and she simply pursed her lips in thought. "So, two years back with the league," Snart mused, changing the topic._

_Sara nodded but said nothing._

_"Learn any new tricks?" He continued to pester._

_"A few," she confirmed, "One being how to control my bloodlust." She continued and he cracked a wry grin at her._

_"Congratulations," He drawled and she chuckled as he ordered them each another shot._

_"Thank you," she said; they clinked their glasses together and each downed the shot._

_That was the last shot either of them took, so as they sat there at the bar for another hour or so they weren't wasted by any means, but they were each far enough gone that when they tried to stay while the others went back to the ship they were warned that if they didn't return within a few hours someone was coming back and dragging them out._

_"It's all talk you know," Len drawled once the others were gone, "Even with all of them put together they'd be lucky to drag one of us out of here if we didn't want to leave, they could never handle both of us." He continued and Sara chuckled at the mental image it put in her head of a bar fight against the rest of the team._

_"They'd send Ray, Kendra, and Jax." She finally mused,_

_"How do you figure?" Len questioned and she smirked._

_"Ray's strong enough to drag you out of here, but too cautious to actually do it without Kendra yelling at him, same with Jax. Kendra knows how to handle me at my worst, and that's saying something. Besides, I doubt Rip and the old man would do much more than stand there yelling at us." She explained her reasoning and Snart had to agree with it._

_"Well why don't we do the team a favor and go back on our own?" He suggested,_

_"Did Captain Cold start taking orders in the two years I was gone?" She asked and he gave her a smirk._

_"Hardly," he defended with a grin, "But it's getting late, and it's been a long day." He said and she nodded in agreement but made no motion to vacate her seat. "You still want to get drunk don't you?" He asked, however much to his surprise she shook her head._

_"I just don't want to go back to my room," she admitted and when he raised a questioning eyebrow at her, silently prompting her to elaborate, she began to trace her finger around the rim of her glass to calm herself. "When I came back from the dead I promised myself that I was done. I went to places where even Malcolm Merlin couldn't find me and drag me back to the league. I thought that this mission could fix everything broken inside me, and for a while I actually thought it was working. But then… the second I ended up in a bad situation I did exactly what the mission was supposed to stop me from doing." She explained and if he were being honest, Snart would almost say that he felt sorry for her. He didn't of course; Sara Lance is the last person on earth who wants someone to pity her._

_"Act drunker than you are," he finally instructed, she looked at him with a quizzical glare._

_"What?" She asked in total confusion,_

_"If you don't want the team giving us both crap about you sleeping in my room tonight, you'll make it look like you need a babysitter." He explained, she thought over for a minute what he was suggesting, that if she didn't want to be alone tonight than he would stay with her, and a small grin crept across her face._

_They walked back to the ship, the entire time Sara stumbling and Snart keeping his hands planted firmly on her shoulders as though he were guiding her. The only person they ended up crossing paths with was Jax, and he seemed to think it be a good idea that someone stay with Sara for the night._

_"Shit, we forgot to grab my pajamas." Sara cursed once Len closed his door. He sighed at the reminder but didn't really feel like walking all the way down to her room (two doors down) so he simply tossed her one his t-shirts._

_"Here," he mumbled as she caught the garment._

_"First drinks and now this, are you trying to get lucky, Leonard?" She asked with a teasing smirk, his back was turned to her so she could change but she still sensed the roll of his eyes._

_"As fun as that would be, Canary, it's not what I was planning." He said,_

_"Aw, too bad." She mock pouted, though she almost sounded to be genuinely disappointed._

_Once he was sure she was done changing Snart turned around and looked at her with a questioning glare._

_"How drunk are you?" He finally asked; she shrugged._

_"Not that drunk," she replied, "Just two years sober and lonely."_

_After that everything pretty much happened in a blur. Maybe he kissed her first, or maybe she kissed him. He slipped his hands under the shirt she barrowed from him around the same time she started fiddling with his belt. He took a condom out of his top drawer and opened it while running his hands over her ass, neither of them noticing that the latex might have snagged between his finger just a little bit and weakened; possibly even ripped. ___  
.  
.  
. 

__"Snart?" Kendra finally managed to ask in complete and total disbelief once Sara had told her the story, choosing for both their sakes forgo any details that did not need to be given._ _

__"Yup," The blonde replied with a huff and a nod, "We haven't talked about it since, I don't think either of us is very good with feelings."_ _

__"You have to tell him," Kendra said firmly,_ _

__"I know," Sara quickly replied, albeit very unenthusiastically. "He's going to find out sooner or later," she sighed like she didn't want to admit this, because in all honestly she didn't._ _

__The two of them were quiet for a moment, just sitting there on the bed in total silence as each tried to think about what to say next._ _

__"You know it's funny," Sara mused, finally breaking the heavy silence. "I didn't show it but after I drank Mick under the table in the old west I felt really hung over, and all I could think about was this girl back in college who partied every night until she came stumbling back at noon the next day. We all knew she was hooking up a lot, and then one night she had two beers and it made her sick. Turns out she was pregnant," She explained._ _

__"So, you already thought you could've been… you know?" Kendra asked, trying to avoid using the word because it was obvious that her friend still isn't all that comfortable with the idea._ _

__"The thought crossed my mind," she admitted, "But I told myself it was just because I hadn't drank that much in almost three years and the liquor was half gasoline anyway." She explained before her eyes suddenly grew wide with panic, "Oh my god," she gasped in a voice barely above a whisper._ _

__"What?" Kendra asked,_ _

__"I drank Mick under the table, I think I took somewhere between nine and eleven shots! What if… What if I-"_ _

___"Sara, Sara calm down!" Kendra nearly shouted over her panicking friend as she grabbed her shoulders and prompted her to look her in the eye. "Sara, Sara look at me. Look at me," she instructed until she finally had the blonde's attention. "I'm sure you're fine, I'm sure everything is ok. You're not very far along, and you were even less along then. It was probably too early for it to have an effect. If you want, Gideon can give you another scan, make sure everything is ok with the baby." She suggested and Sara started to calm, the sound of a rational voice putting her racing mind at ease. "Come on, let's go." Kendra prompted once Sara seemed to be getting a grip._  
.  
.  
. 

__"Back already haircut?" Mick asked when Ray returned to the brig, they had pretty much finished the improvements they were making to the cells and Mick had been just finishing up the last one when Ray left._ _

__"You are never going to believe what I just saw," Ray said, his face still as shocked as it was when he first opened his bedroom door and saw what was happening inside._ _

__"Try me," Mick said with a chuckle, "Not sure if you remember but I was a temporal bounty hunter, I've seen a lot of things."_ _

__"Not like this," Ray assured as he walked further into the room. "Don't tell anyone," he requested,_ _

__"What are we? Twelve year old girls?" Mick mocked but Ray paid no attention to the sarcastic answer he had been given._ _

__"I just went into my room, and Sara was in there with Kendra, and she was crying." He said it like it was the most unbelievable thing in the world. "And I mean balling her eyes out crying." He added when all Mick did in response was raise an eyebrow to show that he wasn't impressed._ _

__"Kendra?" He asked, knowing that there was no possible way Sara was the one crying._ _

__"Sara," Ray confirmed, Mick's eyebrows furrowed at the idea._ _

__"What happened to her?" He finally questioned but Ray just shrugged exasperatedly._ _

__"What could've happened to her?" He asked, "I mean its Sara, she doesn't exactly cry over spilled milk."_ _

__"Think it has anything to do with how she fainted on the last mission?" Mick asked,_ _

__"Doubt it," Ray said with a shake of his head, "She said she was just dehydrated,"_ _

__"And you believe that?" Mick asked incredulously, like Snart he hadn't bought Sara's excuse for one second._ _

__"What reason would she have for lying?" Ray asked but he soon regretted it when a mischievous smirk crossed his teammate's face._ _

___"That haircut," he began, clasping Ray on the shoulder as he spoke, "Is what we need to find out."_  
.  
.  
. 

__"Are you sure you don't want Snart in here for this?" Kendra asked for the second time since she and Sara had reentered the med bay. They had asked Gideon to scan Sara again and check up on the status of the baby, but the AI's response was to inform them that because it's still so early in Sara's pregnancy she couldn't accurately assess the baby for any issues without the use of the ultrasound machine. So Sara climbed on the chair/bed while Kendra dragged out the machine._ _

__"Kendra I am barely at terms with this, there is no way I'm telling Leonard right now." She deadpanned as she rolled up her shirt and Kendra turned the machine on._ _

__"Huh, black and white. Thought Rip would've had one of those 3D ultrasound machines." Kendra mused as she flicked on the machine and the screen looked akin to something from the late 90's or something._ _

__"Unfortunately Miss Saunders, the Waverider's ultrasound machine was damaged during a mission prior to the current one. The machine you are using was only supposed to be temporary in case an emergency arose." Gideon informed her as Sara squeezed some gel onto her stomach, shivering slightly at how cold it was._ _

__"Well I'm glad, those 3D ultrasounds creep me out." The blonde cringed and Kendra raised an amused and yet questioning eyebrow at her._ _

__"What? The babies look like they're inside of a pickle jar!" She exclaimed in defense as Kendra laughed and started moving the wand around over her friend's abdomen._ _

__"Thanks for that mental image," she laughed before focusing entirely on the screen. "Now what am I…looking for." She began to asked but soon trailed off and her voice quieted as both she and Sara stared in stunned amazement at the screen._ _

__The computer was displaying an image that looked like a cone if you cut it in half. It was black and white with little grains that reminded both girls of TV static, but then in the bottom left hand corner of it was a little pocket of just black and inside of that was a grey little blob._ _

__"I am detecting that the unborn child's heart rate is at a healthy 108 beats per minute, and there don't appear to be any complications with the child at this time." Gideon's words fell on nearly deaf ears. Both woman heard them, and registered them, but neither responded. In fact it was almost a solid two minutes before Sara finally swallowed her nerves and brought herself to speak._ _

__"I'm… I'm going to be a mom."_ _


	3. What's going on with Sara?

"Well, she swore the computer to secrecy." Mick declared as he walked into a room at the back of the ship that had been dubbed "The Workshop." Ray was currently in there, tinkering with his suite. They had stayed in the temporal zone for almost a month after the incident in 1960 to allow Sara to work some more with Kendra and Ray to repair his suit. It was mostly repaired at this point, but that didn't stop the childlike scientist from wanting to improve it.

"Are you kidding me?" He demanded but Mick shook his head,

"Gideon won't tell a soul," he confirmed.

"I also advised Mr. Rory that if he desire's to know the details of Ms. Lance's personal life he should simply ask her." Gideon chimed in, as usual her voice was cheery but it still sounded as though she were reprimanding the two of them.

"Any luck on your end?" The former bounty hunter asked, completely ignoring Gideon, Ray shook his head.

"Kendra won't talk either, she basically said the same thing as Gideon." He admitted, "Also, I thought I was the computer genius around here but apparently Sara's a lot better than she lets on." He said,

"What do you mean?" Mick asked in confusion,

"Well when Kendra wouldn't tell me, I tried looking up the security footage-"

"Rip has camera's in our rooms?" Mick interrupted but Ray ignored his question.

"Sara deleted the footage of her conversation with Kendra. Next I tried the footage from the med bay for when Sara had fainted, she deleted that too." He confessed. Mick's face was growing more and more suspicious by the minute and Ray honestly couldn't tell if the man was still following or not. "Now I did find one more hole in the footage, there's an entire hour missing from the med bay recordings and it starts when Sara was crying." He said and gave Mick a minute to process that.

"She went back to the med bay?" He asked and Ray nodded,

"She must have," he said and so Mick turned on his heel.

"Come on," he called over his shoulder as Ray hurriedly followed him out of the workshop.

"Where are we going?" He asked once he caught up, Mick smirked.

"The number one rule of being a thief: leave everything EXACTLY how you found it." He replied as the two of them entered the med bay. "Sara may be a top notch assassin, but she's no thief." He continued,

"Mick, she sponged all the security records, she knows how to cover her tracks." Ray argued, very skeptical about the chances that the girls had left something out of place yesterday.

"Do you have a better idea?" Mick asked and of course Ray didn't have a better idea, but that didn't stop him from taking a few seconds to try and think of one.

"Couldn't hurt to look," he finally agreed.

They walked inside and at first, and second, glance everything looked to be normal.

"Do you think maybe she just needed another IV?" Ray asked but Mick shook his head.

"What for?" He asked, "She was asleep when we went down to the brig and according to you she came back here an hour later, and before that all she was doing was crying. What would she need another IV for?" He questioned, slightly surprising Ray with his logic. "Besides, there's only one in the trash." He added at the end.

"Then what do you think they were doing in here?" Ray asked as he scanned over the medicine rack, "Because everything's here that's supposed to be." He continued but Mick didn't respond, instead he set to inspecting the chair.

They looked around in silence for a few minutes, and Ray was about to suggest giving up the search of the med bay because he was down to glancing over the machines that they never use. But instead of calling it quits he stopped and looked a little closer, because something was indeed out of place. With a puzzled face he reached onto the rack of, of all things, the ultrasound machine and picked up the tube of gel. They've never used the machine, not even once, so the gel should have been sealed shut.

But it wasn't.

It was a container that resembled a tube of toothpaste and was creased just a tiny bit on the end, almost as if it had been squeezed recently. Upon popping off the cap Ray found that it indeed was open, and little bits of excess gel were still freshly stuck on the rim.

"Hey Mick," Ray said, gaining the attention of his teammate. He looked over his shoulder almost in panic, but Mick didn't seem to understand the urgency of it.

"They use that?" He finally asked and Ray nodded,

"It's an ultrasound machine." He explained, and without another word being said the two of them were dragging out the large piece of technology.

"So which one of them is pregnant?" Mick asked as Ray fired up the machine, he's fully aware that Sara was the one crying but at the same time it's far more likely that Kendra's the one expecting a baby considering she and Ray are obviously a couple.

"Neither of them is pregnant," Ray deadpanned with an incredulous and almost offended look. "They were probably scanning for something with Sara's internal organs," he said, now realizing that when he'd seen Sara crying it very easily could've been that she was in a lot of pain.

"Can you figure out what?" Mick asked and Ray gave a cocky grin.

"This is a computer, meaning it has memory, meaning of course I…can." He trailed off in shock, because he was working the whole time he was talking and now the image that was dated as having been taking during the time missing from the med bay's security was displayed on the screen.

"What am I looking at?" Mick questioned, looking over Ray's shoulder at the fuzzy image on the screen that didn't look like much of anything to him, but it had apparently been enough to shut Palmer's big brain off.

With a shaky hand Ray pointed to the bottom left hand corner of the screen, still unable to believe what he was seeing.

"This," he finally said, now gesturing to the picture in it's entirety. "This is Sara's uterus," he explained and Mick raised an eyebrow at him.

"And they were looking at this why?" He asked, suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable with looking at the picture himself.

"Because," Ray began, pointing once again to the little blob at the bottom. "That is… um… that's a baby." He stuttered out, Mick's expression now shifting to match his own as he realized that his once sarcastic comment about on of the girl's being pregnant was actually dead on.

"Shit," he finally said in a low and stunned voice, Ray nodded and they just continued to stare at the image. They stared for almost a full minute, before they heard the sound of someone stopping short in the doorway and snapped their heads up, seeing Sara standing there and mirroring a shock that almost matched their own.

The three stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. The boys staring at Sara and Sara staring back, all of them unable to come up with something to say. Ray was the first to break eye contact, glancing down at the blonde woman's flat stomach and when he did Mick saw the little hitch of breath in Sara's throat.

"Sara," the arsonist finally said in a low and what he hoped was soft voice, but she nearly shrank back at the sound.

Ray was walking towards her now, slowly, as though he were approaching a wounded animal.

"I came to erase the memory on that… I forgot it-" Ray cut Sara off, and he did so by wrapping his arms around her and engulfing her in a hug. Mick half expected her to shove him off, but instead she only tensed for a second before she wound her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. The two of them didn't stay in their embrace long before Sara broke it by gently pulling away and looking to both men with a serious face.

"Can you guys please not tell anyone?" She requested, hoping that they would be as understanding as Kendra.

"Of course," Ray readily agreed, but Mick's hard face made it clear that he was going to be a little harder to convince.

"No offence Blondie but it can't be safe for you to be making time jumps, Rip has to know." He deadpanned, normally Mick is one of the last people to listen to the captain but after all the time he spent as Chronos he knows a thing or two about the effects of time travel, and while pregnancy may not have been extensively covered in his training he's certain it's not a good idea for Sara to be time jumping.

"I already made a deal with Gideon; we agreed that as long as I take my vitamins, don't drink, don't smoke, and yaddah yaddah yaddah, I have until the end of my first trimester to tell Rip before she does." She explained before sighing and shoving her hands nervously into her pockets, "Which believe me I'm probably going to have to anyway because it won't be long after that it's noticeable." She continued and despite the fact that she hadn't wanted anyone knowing about this Mick swore he saw a ghost of a smile playing across her lips.

"Which will be when exactly?" Ray asked nervously, Sara looked thoughtful for a second as she did some quick math in her head.

"About four and a half weeks," she replied, Ray and Mick were both surprised to hear that it would be so soon.

"Who-?"

"I'm not telling," she was quick to cut Ray off, and he nodded acceptingly, knowing he was lucky she'd let him survive despite his snooping so far.

"Well if you need anything, you know where to find me." He said as he walked past her, still very surprised by all that had just transpired.

"Thank you," she said as he left the med bay, he nodded and then continued on his way.

This left her alone with Mick, and when she turned back to face him he was smirking at her with an amused gleam in his eye.

"You're not gonna pester me?" She questioned and he chuckled before taking a step closer to her.

"Oh I already know its Snart's." He said and she hoped that the panic that flashed through her mind wasn't evident on her face. "You were gone for two years, so unless you had a thing with a guy in the league and had some fun right before you left, or maybe even hooked up with someone during your little disappearing act in the old west. But I doubt you did much dating when you were in the 50's, and Kendra disappeared with you in the old west." He deduced and honestly if the situation weren't so serious Sara would've been impressed with him.

"Mick," She said his name seriously, looking up to meet his eyes. "Please don't say anything, to anyone." She pleaded, she may not know how to tell Leonard just yet but she certainly doesn't want him finding out from someone else.

"Don't worry, I wont." Mick assured her and with that he patted her on the shoulder and headed out of the med bay, leaving her alone to wonder just how long it was going to take for Ray to spill the beans to someone.  
.  
.  
.

They spent that night where they were in the middle ages, making a plan for the following night. According to Rip the timeline was beginning to set with their past selves removed from it and this is the last place in the past that Gideon currently knows for sure Vandal Savage is hiding, meaning that if they don't succeed in killing him here they'll have no choice but to go to 2166.

"Just one problem, we can't kill him without something from ancient Egypt." Jax pointed out as they all sat around the bar in the kitchen eating dinner.

"Lucky for us we're in a time before Savage had the dagger, it was property to a local curator and we are going to steal it tomorrow." Rip explained and Len smirked,

"Shouldn't be too hard," he said,

"I doubt it will be," Rip agreed. "Sneaking into the royal palace where Savage is an advisor and murdering him, that might be a little more difficult." He admitted,

"Well do we have a plan?" Mick asked, with his mouth full of course.

"Well stealing the knife will be simple, tomorrow afternoon you and Mr. Snart will employ whatever methods it is that you use to steal the dagger from the shopkeeper during the day, and once that is done we'll go over the plan for murdering Savage." Rip explained,

"Why can't we just go over it now?" Kendra questioned and the captain sighed.

"Because with this group everything that can go wrong will and I don't like to jinx myself." He excused but Sara saw right through it.

"You don't have a plan yet, do you?" She asked and when Rip's face fell it was all the confirmation she needed.

"Remind me again why we signed on with this guy?" Snart asked with a roll of his eyes.  
.  
.  
.

When Sara woke up in the morning, something was off. She felt nauseous, but then again she always felt nauseous in the mornings and not because of being pregnant. She had felt nauseous more or less every morning since being revived by the pit, but it usually passed after a few minutes. This though, this was more than her usual upset stomach. This wasn't slowly waking up and then having the sensation hit her, no this was her eyes snapping open as last night's supper lurched violently inside of her. Her brain was practically on autopilot as she sprung out of bed and raced to her door, one hand slamming against the scanner to open it while the other covered her mouth as if it would be of any use. Once out in the hall she practically flew to the bathroom and thanked god that the door there was open.

"Hey!" Jax called as she sped inside, he was standing at the sink and brushing his teeth but she paid only enough attention to avoid crashing into him. Besides, he stopped caring that she had raced into an occupied bathroom when she hit her knees in front of the toilet and began emptying the contents of her stomach. "Oh man," he said quietly, suddenly torn between leaving to give Sara some privacy and staying to help her in some way.

Sara could not have cared less about what Jax did if she tried; it was the last thing she was focused on. Instead she was trying to ignore the sight of half digested pasta and what looked to be the remnants of a few meatballs that greeted her first thing in the morning. The bile it was mixed with left a sour taste in her mouth and after a solid minute of puking she lifted her head up and greedily sucked in a breath of fresh, or at least untainted by the smell of the toilet, air before the urge to vomit hit her again and she obeyed. She was holding her hair rather haphazardly to the side with one hand while the other hand gripped the toilet bowl, until Jax finally decided to stop staring and do something that is. Admittedly she was so focused on getting sick that she didn't even notice he was approaching until he had his hands in her hair. She didn't let go, because no offence to Jax but he wasn't holding it right. His hands were kind of just barely under her hair. She couldn't blame him, it's not like he's ever had a reason to deal with long hair before. When she finally finished, for now at least, she began to lean back and Jax let go of her hair stepped to the side of her.

"Um…?" He trailed off as she leaned against the tub and caught her breath, unsure of how to phrase his question.

"I'm fine," she panted, "My body is still getting back on track from being in the pit, every so often it forgets it can hold food down." It wasn't a complete lie, although she had never thrown up because of the after effects of the pit. Still, Jax seemed to buy it.

"Are you… are you going to be ok?" He asked, walking over to the sink and filling up a glass that someone had left there with water before passing it to her.

"Yeah," she panted with a grateful smile as she reached her hand out for the water, not caring about whoever used the glass last. Despite wanting nothing more than to chug it and get the taste of bile out of her mouth, she drank in slow and small gulps as so to avoid making herself sick all over again. "Sorry if I scared you," she said before getting to her feet.

"It's cool, um, you gonna be ok if Rip puts you on the mission tonight?" Jax questioned but Sara just smiled at him.

"Yes, I'll be perfectly fine." She assured him and so with a nod he left the bathroom, leaving her alone as her face fell and she sighed nervously.

"I hope," she murmured, subconsciously resting her hand on her still flat belly.


	4. The Cat's Out of the Bag

Sara didn't know how long it was going to take her to tell Rip and Snart, and to a lesser extent Jax and Stein, about her pregnancy. She had expected she would probably put it off for as long as possible, or you know at least until she was comfortable with the idea herself. But turns out that she didn't have that luxury, because it was during the mission to murder Savage in the middle ages that she was forced to reveal her secret.

She had been paired up with Snart, of course. The rest of the team had snuck into the castle whilst the guards changed their shift and the two of them were waiting as backup in case something should, and knowing this team would, go wrong. Mick had been with them originally, but he had requested to go in with the others because honestly he looks like he could be a guard in the middle ages and that could be used to their advantage. Sara had rolled her eyes when Rip agreed because she knew Mick's true motives for asking about the switch; he wanted her to tell Snart about the baby. She knew that she should be grateful, he was offering her some justified alone time with the crook where there would be nothing for them to do but talk. But she didn't want to talk. She didn't even want to think about it and yet it was all that seemed to be able to run through her mind. Snart being the quiet and focused man that he is wasn't helping either; any conversation initiated by him would've been a welcome distraction from her thoughts. In fact, she didn't even care if it came from him or a house on fire; she just wanted a distraction.

Well be careful what you wish for.

After about only fifteen minutes or so of just crouching on behind a small hill not far from the castle she felt the familiar sensation of something wet seeping through her underwear, something that was definitely not supposed to be there. Her eyes widened and so she reached up and turned off her comm., not wanting anyone to hear if she started panicking.

_"It can't be," _She thought to herself; Gideon had confirmed her pregnancy, not only with a scan but also with an ultrasound, so this definitely could not be happening.__

__She continued to focus on that fact as she very cautiously slipped a hand between her thighs, hardly even noticing it when Snart rolled his eyes at her. Much to her horror she felt something wet on the leather of her pants and when she pulled her shaking hand away her fingers were lightly stained with the color red; and she was sure she felt her heart stop._ _

__"I, I'm bleeding." She finally said with a terrified gulp, this motivated Snart to look over at her and notice the panic written on her face._ _

__He also turned his comm. off, probably to save her as much embarrassment as he could._ _

__"Here," he said whilst stripping off his jacket, "Tie this around your waist, we'll get you something after the mission." He promised as he held out the jacket, but she wouldn't take it. Instead she just continued to stare down at her fingers._ _

__"I'm bleeding," she said again, this time he noticed that there was a little crack to her voice._ _

__"Very observant," He replied with a role of his eyes, "Now I'm sure you have some of those tampon things or whatever it is you use back on the ship, but-" She cut him off not only with words, but also with a face of complete and total fear._ _

__"No Snart, I, I'm pregnant." She forced herself to spit it out, and also try not to be upset by the way his eyes widened and his gaze became distant as if he had zoned out. "Or at least I was, I mean I was this morning but… I don't understand. Gideon, Gideon checked me out and said everything was fine yesterday." Tears began to pick at her eyes and she was coming pretty close to hyperventilating when she suddenly realized that Snart was no longer kneeling a few feet away from her, but instead was standing over her and helping her up._ _

__Only when she stood did she realize how wobbly her feet were and she nearly fell back down, she would've had Leonard not caught her and lifted her bridal style into his arms. Despite holding her close to him he still managed to reach up and switch his comm. back on._ _

__"Change of plans, Sara and I are going back to the Waverider." He announced, already running with her held firmly in is grasp. She was grateful for that too, because the panic and fear were starting to overtake her as she thought over what was happening. Rip must have been shouting, because Len was very violent in turning his comm. back off._ _

__He didn't care what Rip said though, nor did he care that he barely understood what exactly was going on. Sara was, or is, pregnant? He wanted to deny all possibility of it, or at least all possibility of it being his, but he couldn't. Even if he could, even if this baby that she may or may not be carrying isn't his he does understand one thing: something is very wrong._ _

___"You'll be ok," He assured Sara when he finally registered that her breath was coming out in hiccups as her fears sank in and her tears began to spill out. "You'll be ok," he said it again, "You'll both be ok."_  
.  
.  
. 

__By the time they got back to the ship Sara, although she was still unspeakably worried, had calmed down and Len had pretty much processed that what was happening actually was. Despite his rush, he was gentle in lying Sara down on the medical bed; he didn't want to risk making the situation worse._ _

__"Gideon, run a scan on Sara! Something's wrong!" He all but shouted up at the ceiling. Gideon didn't respond verbally, but instead the blue light Sara had been scanned by just two days ago returned and began roaming over her body._ _

__The tears were streaming freely down her face by now, her breath coming out in shallow gasps as she tried to calm herself. Leonard even looked scared, and she couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing._ _

__"It appears that Miss Lance has suffered from some minor vaginal bleeding, most likely caused by a slight shift in the embryo's position as it begins to develop more fully. It has already stopped on it's own and is nothing to be concerned about." The AI's robotic voice finally explained and while Len let out a breath of relief that he had been holding, Sara just let out a sob._ _

__He turned to her, looking at her incredulously, as she covered her mouth with one hand and her red face scrunched up as she silently let out her tears. At first he thought maybe they were tears of happiness, but even in this situation she didn't seem like the type for that. Then he thought that maybe she was just trying to calm herself down, but then he noticed how she had her eyes squeezed shut and when they opened she still wouldn't look at him._ _

__She was afraid of his reaction._ _

__"Let's try this again," he drawled, trying to make his voice as non-threatening as possible while still sounding firm. "Do you want to tell me why you really fainted?" He asked and in response she began scrubbing furiously at her eyes as her breath repeatedly hitched with her efforts to calm down. He waited patiently for her to do so, giving her all the time she needed to compose herself._ _

__"I didn't want you to find out this way," she finally muttered, the tears gone from her face but still very evident in her voice._ _

__"How long have you known?" He asked and she sniffled,_ _

__"Two days, three if you count the night I found out." She replied and he had his next question ready, but he couldn't bring himself to ask it._ _

__"How far along are you?" His voice was softer now, it's edge starting to disappear because not only does he not need it around Sara but this is also neither the time nor the place for it._ _

__"Just under two months," she answered, he tried to figure out exactly how long ago their little escapade had been but with time travel it gets a little jumbled._ _

__"Is it…?" He finally asked with a gulp, trailing off, as he couldn't bring himself to finish his question._ _

__Luckily, she knew what he was trying to ask and nodded her head in confirmation. He tried not to look afraid, mostly because she looked like she was only seconds away from crying again and he knew that a bad reaction from him could set her off. Fortunately, or unfortunately maybe, he didn't have much time to give a reaction because at that very moment Rip marched in looking royally pissed off and Len noticed that the tail of his long coat was singed slightly._ _

__"What happened?!" He demanded of Sara and Leonard. "You know what, don't answer, I'll tell you what happened. Our backup decided to leave in the middle of a mission and because of that we not only didn't defeat Savage but we lost the knife, meaning that we are going to 2166 with NO advantage!" He lectured,_ _

__"If you haven't noticed Rip, we're having this conversation in the med bay, we had a pretty good reason for leaving." Len drawled, more than a little annoyed that their captain clearly hadn't even considered the fact that he and Sara had a good reason for ditching the mission._ _

__"Very well," Rip said, his voice a little more calm but still angry as ever. "I'll play along, what happened while you were sitting on a hill waiting for a signal that required you report to the med bay immediately?" He asked, crossing his arms and staring expectantly at the two of them._ _

__Neither of them answered, they both looked to be very uncomfortable with being put on the spot and Leonard did briefly glance over his shoulder at Sara, but neither of them answered._ _

__"Well then, be on the bridge in five minutes to make the jump to 2166." He instructed before exiting out of the med bay. Once he was gone Len turned back to Sara and let out a sigh, she looked as scared as he felt._ _

__"We're going to have to tell him," he deadpanned; she looked at him in surprise._ _

__"We?" She asked and although he tried to hide it with a fake smile he felt his heart break a little bit at the underlying meaning of the question._ _

__"You didn't really think I'd walk out on this, did you?" He asked and she shrugged,_ _

__"You don't exactly strike me as the type to want kids," she reasoned,_ _

__"Yeah well whether I like it or not I'm going to have one," he said, but that was when something else crossed his mind that he hadn't even considered in the midst of all this chaos. "Unless you were planning to-" the violent way in which she was shaking her head cut him off._ _

__"I can't, I just can't." She told him and he nodded acceptingly, "I still don't know about after it's born, if I could keep it or not. But I do know one thing; I can't have you there halfway." She told him seriously,_ _

__"Meaning?" He asked, although he was fairly sure that he had a pretty good idea._ _

__"Meaning that whatever the decision comes to I want us to make it together." She explained, "If we decide to give it up I need to know that you're on board with that, and if we decide to keep it then we need to find a way to make that work together. Neither of us can continue the life of coming and going in and out, either we work out some joint custody agreement or if only one of us wants to keep it then the other walks away like none of this ever happened." She explained, honestly she's not entirely sure either one of them could handle being a single a parent. Sure he practically raised Lisa and she looked out for Sin, but it's been a long time for him and she didn't even meet Sin until she was thirteen and mostly able to take care of herself. But if it were to come down to that then she and Len could never see each other again. They couldn't become one of those people who pretend that they're just a friend of the parent and visits once or twice a year; this was something that needs to be either all or nothing._ _

__"So I take it you don't want to get married?" Len asked half jokingly after listening to her conditions._ _

__"Let's figure out what to do with the kid first," she said and he smirked before turning as if he were about to head to the bridge, but then he turned back._ _

__"I know you said you're not sure if you CAN keep it, but do you want to?" He asked as she got up and off the bed, biting her lip with thought before she nodded._ _

__"I'll think it over," he promised her, "But I doubt my answer is going to change." He said before turning to go,_ _

__"And what is your answer?" She asked, getting him to stop just outside the doorway and look back at her over his shoulder._ _

___"I'd like to place my vote under keep it," he replied, she let him go and continue on his way after he told her. She didn't tell him that his words lifted a huge weight off of her chest._  
.  
.  
. 

__As if time jumping isn't bad enough, time jumping into London 2166 is probably the worst idea one could ever have. They were being shot at before they even hit the ground._ _

__"Savage's forces are doing the shooting, here in 2166 they've subject-gated most of the globe!" Rip informed the team after Jax asked why they were being shot at despite only having just entered the time._ _

__"Well maybe picking up here wasn't the brightest idea!" Sara remarked as another powerful shot rocked the ship and she struggled to keep her food down where it belongs._ _

__"Unfortunately we no longer have the luxury of blindly searching for Savage throughout history," Stein reminded her. She nodded and sucked in a breath through gritted teeth, no longer having the luxury of being able to speak unless she wanted to throw up again._ _

__Snart glanced over at her, not that she noticed, worried about her and thinking that maybe she shouldn't be time jumping._ _

__"Indeed," Rip's reply to Stein cut through the crook's thoughts, "We need to target Savage at the time and place we know he will be, which is-"_ _

__"Right before he wastes your family," Mick cut off bluntly, the others all turned their heads to glare incredulously at him, including Len and Sara despite their own concerns. "What?" The arsonist asked, somehow believing what he had said was appropriate._ _

__"Yes, Mr. Rory, Savage will kill my wife and son in three days time. But we can save them and the world by stopping Savage now," Rip said, choosing not to spend right now lecturing Mick on the social etiquette that he so clearly never learned._ _

__Within the next two minutes they landed and while everyone got up as if the jump and attack had been nothing, Sara remained in her seat for an extra minute after removing her restraints. Len sent her a look, one that asked if she was all right, and she nodded in reply before getting to her feet as Rip babbled on about something._ _

__"Savage is going to be out in the open tonight. Now, in order to capture him I require the services of-"_ _

__"Killer, Clepto, and Pyro." Mick cut the captain off for a second time,_ _

__"Bingo," Rip replied before glaring at Len and Sara. "Meaning that this would be a lot easier if Killer and Clepto would tell me why they abandoned the previous mission."_ _

__"Are you kidding me Rip?" Len all but whined, the hard gaze of the captain said that he was not kidding._ _

__"Unfortunately no Mr. Snart, this is our last chance to defeat Savage before you all end up in the timeline as nothing more than forever unsolved missing person's cases. So I need to know that I can trust you, less you want to pay the consequences." He said sternly and Len gave a sigh, he'd be fine with never being able to return home but he knew that the others would all have problems with such a thing. He looked over at Sara who sighed in agreement; it was time to come clean._ _

__"Alright," she agreed calmly and everyone turned to look at her, especially those who already know about the events of the past two days. "I'm pregnant."_ _


	5. Leviathan

Despite the war taking place on the outside of the Waverider, you could've heard a pin drop on the inside. Everyone, even those who already knew, were dead silent at the sound of the news.

"You're joking," Stein finally said but Sara turned to him, her completely serious face not once wavering.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" She asked; the older man looked as if he had a response planned but it died on his lips upon realizing that she was, in fact, very serious.

"How?" Rip finally questioned,

"Does she really need to explain the how to you?" Len drawled in annoyance.

"So that's why you were throwing up this morning," Jax exclaimed, making the connection to earlier.

"No I mean, when? Or who?" Rip spluttered, ignoring Jax and causing Sara to do the same. She looked at Len, who nodded his permission, letting her know that he was ok with the others knowing that he's the father.

"Well, the night we stopped at the service station for fuel Leonard and I decided that we had both had a long day and we wanted to get our minds off it for a little bit." She explained, now just about everybody was staring at Snart with a mix of faces that ranged from surprised (Ray and Stein) to downright smug (Mick).

"Wait, you?" Ray questioned, pointing to Len. "And you?" His finger now flying to Sara's direction before he began gesturing widely between the two. "You and you? You hooked up with… so the two of you…?"

"The answer is yes Raymond, now learn to finish a sentence." Len cut off the other man's stuttered question that he couldn't seem to get out of his mouth.

"The two of us ditched the last mission because I started bleeding, you know, down there and we thought I was miscarrying." Sara awkwardly supplied, trying to get everyone away from their initial shock. "But Gideon checked me out and said everything's ok," she made sure to add that when the other's expressions quickly shifted from shock to worry.

"I don't normally disagree with Gideon, but I would say that everything is far from being ok." Rip said; folding his arms across his chest as the shock disappeared and the anger set in.

"Rip," Sara began but the captain didn't allow her to continue.

"What were you thinking?" He demanded, "What were either of you thinking?"

"This coming from the man who got married and had a kid even though it was against policy?" Snart asked, "You aren't exactly one to talk Rip."

"Miranda and I planned on getting married as well as on having Jonas! We were careful not to sleep together while she was in training to be a Time Master, unlike you two who apparently just threw caution to the wind!" He all but screamed,

"Hey, we used a condom." Len snapped in defense,

"But apparently it wasn't a very good one," Sara added, not that it was of any help to the situation.

Rip ran a hand over his face as he groaned, trying to decide what to do with this information.

"This is our absolute last chance to stop Savage and we need everyone," he said mostly to himself.

"I know, and I'll be fine." Sara assured him, snapping his attention directly to her.

"Sara-" he tried to argue but she wouldn't allow it.

"Like you said, this is our last chance and we need everyone. I'm not even a full two months along yet, I'm more than capable of handling one last mission." She told him, the look in her eye leaving no room for argument.

"It's your child," he finally said in a voice that sounded like if he had another choice he wouldn't let her go out on this mission, but he doesn't have another choice, she isn't giving him one.

"And I can protect it," she assured him confidently,

"Besides, she'll have us right there." Mick cut in, he and the others all knew that Sara wasn't going to allow herself to be benched even if it was for a good reason, but they also know that her guard would be up extra high and that she would never allow any harm to come to her baby.

Rip nodded at Mick and sighed, "Here's the plan."  
.  
.  
.

Twenty minutes later the selected crew members, and Rip, were standing among the ranks of Savages army and blending in seamlessly thanks to some uniforms barrowed from four soldiers who are currently occupied on the inside of a closet. Briefly Rip wondered if Mick had truly come back to his side, as he was apparently listening to Savage, but he decided to write the issue off as Mick being Mick.

"All set on our end," Kendra confirmed into their earpieces as the rally ended, despite having tried to push the assignment onto Sara she was the one monitoring from the safety of the Waverider. She's the only one who can kill Savage, and Sara was quick with reminding her that until they procure a means of doing so she needs to stay hidden from immortal psycho. "Jax is standing by in the jump ship," she informed them.

"For if, and by if I mean when, this thing goes south." Snart deadpanned just as Savage's second in command walked by and glanced right at them. "Savage's lady friend just made us." He all but snarled, already regretting listening to Rip's plan.

"Have faith, Mr. Snart." Rip requested but he must not have listened, big shock, because five minutes later Mick tripped Rip and the four ended up locked in battle with Savage's main guards.

"We'll handle Savage, you tie up the guards." Snart ordered Sara as he and the other two headed off after their target. He probably thought he was leaving her with the easy assignment, mostly unconscious guards, but he didn't see Savage's lieutenant hiding in wait for her fight to become one on one.

"Sara," Kendra's voice rang in the assassin's ear as she engaged the other blonde in battle.

"Not the best time for a lecture Kendra," Sara replied,

"Not that," Kendra said, "The woman you're fighting, you need to take her bracelet." She exclaimed, although Sara knew that her friend would probably be giving her a lecture later on.

"Are you seriously jewelry shopping right now?" She asked in disbelief just as she pushed her opponent away.

She waited for a response, but one never came. Instead Rip and Mick rushing her way and shouting to fall back cut off the chance for it. Snart wasn't far behind them, and when he caught sight of Sara's attacker he aimed his ice gun at the woman with a deadly glared that just dared her to continue her assault. When she stood down at the threat of being frozen, and once Sara was safely on her way with Rip and Mick towards the jump ship, he gave the attacker one last warning glance and then took off after them.  
.  
.  
.

Turns out she hadn't been jewelry shopping. The bracelet had apparently once belonged to Chey-Ara, AKA Kendra's first life, and she was wearing it on the night that she died. So while Rip, Ray, and both halves of Firestorm were out making friends with what's left of the group fighting against Savage's army and Klepto and Pyro were out obtaining the bracelet Sara was in charge of preparing Kendra to take the killing blow at Savage, with a bracelet.

"I could teach you to kill with a necklace, a headband, even a good earring," she mused as she paced around the cargo bay while Kendra flipped though one of Aldus's notebooks for about the thousandth time. "But how in the hell are you supposed to fight and kill an immortal warlord, with a bracelet?" She asked just as Kendra dumped the journal in her hands.

"I don't know," she sighed before turning back to the box she had taken the journal from.

"Hey, what's it like?" Sara asked as she ran her hand gingerly over the leather-bound book she had been handed. The last time she had seen this it was just a book to her, something that had once belonged to a man she didn't know. But now, maybe because she knows Kendra better or because of her own situation, it was so much more. It was heavier, weighted by love and pride, and it held so much more than just half thought out notes in a handwriting she could barely make out. "Being a mom?" She continued her question when she noticed Kendra's face said that she didn't quite understand.

"Well I don't remember most of the newborn days," she sighed apologetically. "But I remember his face when Carter, Joe was his name in that life, came home from work. His eyes would light up and he'd run into his arms, and I remember sitting by his bedside with a washcloth on his head when he was sick; Joe was always jealous because I was the only person he wanted." She reminisced; a bright smile making it's way across her face as she thought about the son of her past life. "It's a lot of work," she finally said, bringing herself back to reality. "But out of the 206 lifetimes I've lived, I think it's the most rewarding thing I've ever done." She confessed and although Sara gave her a smile, she was still scared. "Was he your only kid?" She asked, curious to know if over the course of the last 4000 Kendra had seriously only ever had one child.

She seemed to think on it for a moment, her brow knitting together with concentration.

"I don't think so…" she said uncertainly, "I've had some vague dreams about a girl, I feel like she could've been my daughter." She confessed before shaking the thoughts away and refocusing on the contents of the crate, specifically Carter's mace.

She reached down to pick it up, just to move it so that she could get the journal that lay underneath, but that isn't exactly what happened.

Kendra froze up for a brief second, before dropping the mace as though it had burned her.

"What is it?" Sara asked, very aware that her friend was coming out of a vision from her past.

"I think I know what we can use to kill Savage," she announced, without another word the two of them left the room and headed for Rip's study. When they got there, however, they found the team in the middle of a very interesting discussion.

"So she's Savage's daughter?" Ray asked in disbelief,

"Wait what?" Sara questioned as she and Kendra walked in.

"Apparently that lieutenant you were fighting earlier today, Miss Lance, is the daughter of Vandal Savage." Stein replied in response to her question,

"Yes, so to continue with today's theme, does anyone else here have or plan on having a child and want to share that information?" Rip questioned but obviously no one in the group replied, so they moved on to the next subject.

"I think I've got the bracelet thing figured out," Kendra said confidently before turning to Mick, "But I'm gonna need you to burn something for me." She said and he nodded.

"About time," he said, clearly looking forward to breaking out his lighter again.

"Great, but we still need to figure out what we're going to do with our new guest." Rip reminded them all,

"She's seen us and the ship, if she runs back to Savage we're giving him a huge advantage." Sara pointed out, "But if she is Savage's daughter and his lieutenant then she would know the details of his defenses."

"Yes, but how are we going to get those details out of her?" Rip all but snapped, not noticing that Snart was already vacating his spot in the doorway.

"I'm on it," he announced, the others all turning just in time to see him leave.  
.  
.  
.

"You really think you can get through to her?" Sara asked when Snart came walking out of the brig, she had been waiting outside for him ever since a few minutes after he went in.

"I don't know," he admitted, falling into sync with her steps as they began to walk down the corridor. "One of the worst things about having a crappy parent is that you don't want to admit that you have a crappy parent, even to yourself." He mused before he let his eyes scan over her.

"How are you doing?" He asked and she shrugged,

"Fine," she answered, as though the events that took place a few hours ago hadn't ever occurred.

"Are we ever going to talk about it?" Snart asked her and she shrugged again.

"I thought we already did, when you told me your vote is for keeping it." She reminded him; they were stopped now, standing in the middle of the corridor and locked in a staring contest that neither of them knew the true point of.

After a few seconds Snart opened his mouth to say something, but a violent rocking of the ship cut him off. It felt like the ground underneath them had started quaking, and at some point in trying to maintain their balance Snart found himself instinctively slipping an arm around Sara's waist and his other hand resting firmly against the nearest wall, which she was also leaning her hands against. The shaking lasted longer than any earthquake should've and if they didn't know better both the crook and the assassin would've sworn that a very large and unsteady crane was lifting the ship. In fact, they soon determined that the ship had to be in the air because it started thrashing about vigorously and it didn't take them long to lose their balance. When they went down Snart wrapped his other arm around Sara, pulling her flush against him in a protective hold. Once they hit the floor she twisted in his grip, using her back to put as much protection between her flat midsection and the now falling debris of the ship as possible.

When the shaking finally stopped, and ended with them having been thrown almost all the way down the hall, the two cautiously climbed off of each other.

"What was that?" Sara asked,

"I don't know, but I'd bet my gun it has something to do with Savage." Snart said and Sara nodded her agreement.

"I'll go check it out with Rip, you see if Savage's daughter knows about anything worse that could happen." She instructed, now it was Snart's turn to nod in agreement.

He wanted to argue, wanted to go with Sara, but he trusts her. He knows that when it comes down to it she'll do what's necessary to protect their child, even if that means benching herself. But until then she needs to be able to carry on with her usual business for as long as she can, for all their sakes. So he let her go, and once she was around the corner he turned around and headed back into the brig.  
.  
.  
.

A giant robot.

Of all things it was a giant freaking robot that had attacked the ship. It had left Stein wounded and confided to the med bay, meaning that Jax couldn't really do much more than monitor the mission from the ship. But that turned out to be helpful because when Ray managed to reverse his suit's polarity and make himself grow to the size of the robot he needed someone to monitor his vital signs so that he didn't blow up.

Anyway the rest of the team, with the aid of a turncoat Cassandra Savage, snuck into Savage's secret bunker and was currently awaiting the signal from the young lieutenant. Well they didn't have to wait long before Savage caught onto her intentions of double-crossing him and they revealed themselves, all but Kendra.

"Oh I admire your command of irony Gareeb," Savage said, referring to Rip by his alias from Ancient Egypt. "Using my own child against me,"

"Sorry to say it didn't take much," Snart said, not sorry at all of course.

"They showed me the truth of what you've done," Cassie said as she turned to join the group and stand against her father.

The fight ensued not long after that.

Kendra came swooping in and flew Savage off to another part of the bunker while her teammates dealt with the guards. They were heavily out numbered but dwindling the odds down fairly quickly when Snart noticed a man about to take a kill shot at Cassie from behind. He wasted no time in icing the attacker, causing the young blonde to turn around and see just how close she had almost come to being vaporized.

"I had it covered," she insisted and he smirked,

"Sure you did."  
.  
.  
.

The mission, as always, didn't go as planned. Turns out one of Savage's goons was the latest reincarnation of Carter and Savage had gotten ahold of him before his memories did, so he brainwashed him. With Savage holding the key to unlocking his mind Kendra just couldn't do it, so instead of killing Savage they took him prisoner. Sara had just finished changing out of her leathers when her door opened and she turned around to see Kendra staring back at her with heartbroken eyes. The blonde crossed over to the door and ushered her friend inside, and once the door was closed Kendra just lost it.

She crumpled to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest as she sobbed, so Sara sat down beside her. She put an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to be comforting, she owed Kendra at least that much.

"I feel like a horrible person!" She wailed before burying her head in her arms.

"You're not a horrible person," Sara assured her, rubbing her arm as if it would help.

"I had the chance to kill Savage, to, to save Rip, Rip's fam, fami…" she trailed off, a fresh onslaught of tears stopping her words from coming out.

"I know, but you can't let Carter live out his life as a brainwashed puppet." She insisted, hoping that holding Savage prisoner would be enough to spare the lives on Miranda and Jonas.

"What about Ray?" Kendra sniffled and Sara sighed,

"That's up to you," she answered and in response Kendra let out another loud sob before picking up her head and burying it in the crook of Sara's neck. Sara just laid her head against Kendra's and held her tighter, hoping that the day would never come when her child cried like this and she felt as helpless as she does now.  
.  
.  
.

"I supposed I should thank you for saving my life," Cassie said once the leader of the resistance had more or less accepted her as an ally and left her alone with Snart.

"You can thank me by helping these people and taking out Savage's forces," he drawled and she smirked.

"You were right you know," she said sadly, "My father has no deep down. When I was a child he would push me past my limits, and punish my failures harshly. I often made note of the things that I wouldn't do when I inevitably became a mother," she confessed and Snart looked at her quizzically.

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked,

"I may have been raised as second in command to a monster, but I was still a little girl not too long ago, and I can still see something that I suspect you no longer can." She cryptically replied.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Len asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at her as she smirked.

"That you may not have had the best example of one, but you will be a great father one day should the occasion ever arise." She told him and when he looked at her in surprise all she did was smile. "Good luck on your mission," she said before turning and heading off to begin her own mission, leaving him standing their, and hoping that she's right.


	6. Nightmares in the River of Time

Sara would never admit it but she was actually really scared after what happened in the Middle Ages. Sure the mission in 2166 had distracted her for a while, and it did turn out to be nothing in the end, but it still reminded her that something she has no control over could happen at any moment. She can do everything right for once in her life and it still could amount to nothing; and that is what had her so worried.

With all these thoughts coursing through her head as she tried to fall asleep it's no wonder she woke up with a scream in the middle of the night. She sat up clutching her blankets to her chest, panting heavily and soaked in sweat from the horror of the nightmare she'd just had. There had been so much blood, all of it streaming down her legs and she had been sobbing so hard as it soaked through and stained her White Canary pants with a permanent reminder of what she lost. Quickly, Sara discarded her blankets and stripped off her sweatpants, pulling her underwear down just enough to see that they were clean.

"Of course they're clean," she thought to herself as she let out a sigh of relief; it was just a dream.

"Gideon?" She panted,

"Yes Miss Lance?" Gideon's overly chipper voice came in reply.

"Is Leonard awake?" She asked, regretting it the moment that she did.

"My sensors indicate that Mr. Snart is currently asleep in his quarters, should I wake him and let him know that you are asking for him?" She questioned and Sara's heart sank a little at hearing that.

"No," She said quickly, she wanted Leonard but at the same time she didn't want to bother him. "No," She assured the AI as she slowly lie back down in her bed, although she didn't bother putting her pants back on or untangling her blanket.

"Mission… almost accomplished," Mick slurred the next morning, walking out of Rip's study with a bottle that he had so clearly already taken more than a few sips from.

"That bottle of scotch was given to me as a gift," Rip protested, though it lacked his usual energy.

"We should be toasting to Savage's death," Sara pointed out as Mick handed the bottle to his partner.

Snart raised the bottle to his lips, noticed that the blonde at his feet was purposely distracting herself from the sight of the bottle by picking at her nails, and lowered it without taking a sip. He instead set it on the table for anyone else who wanted it, figuring that if it's half his fault that Sara can't drink for nine months then the least he can do is not drink in front of her.

"But with Carter still brainwashed, we suddenly need Savage alive." He said, speaking if only to keep people from commenting on his choice to put the bottle down. "Which is a problem because as long as he's alive and breathing, Savage is a threat to everyone on this ship." He continued and Mick nodded his agreement.

"Besides, Carter reincarnates. Which is more than I can say about any of us," The pyromaniac pointed out and Snart nodded his agreement, glad to have his old friend backing him up.

"So what?" Kendra demanded, "We just kill Savage and leave Carter a brainless drone?"

"Yes," Mick answered, the look she gave him was nothing short of disgust.

"Sorry we're late," Ray said as he and Jax entered the bridge and unknowingly halted what could've been a very violent argument before it began. "But we found something."

What they found was technology from Savage's giant robot, future technology, as in technology from beyond 2166.

"Savage has been engaging in the exact activities that the Time Counsel was created to prevent!" Rip exclaimed with the giddiness of a young child after he heard the news.

"So that means they'll finally sign off on undoing everything he's done," Sara said as she got to her feet and leaned over the table to get a better look at the robot tech.

"Except we have one small problem," Mick announced, effectively bringing down the excitement of the group who were all starting to think that things just might be finally looking up for them. "The Time Counsel is on the very edge of the timeline, and this bucket of bolts is barely holding together." He reminded them all but Rip simply shook his head and clapped his hands together.

"Gideon!" He exclaimed, "What's the status of the time drive?" He asked the AI,

"Stable Captain," Gideon replied,

"Set a coarse for the Time Counsel," he instructed her before turning to his crew, "Tonight, Vandal Savage faces justice for his crimes."  
.  
.  
.

"Better hope that work you and Palmer did in the brig holds," Snart said as he brushed up in the doorway on the Waverider's kitchen where Mick was currently rifling through the empty refrigerator.

"It'll hold," his more or less partner assured before close the fridge with a frown. "As long as the ship does that is." He remarked; the Waverider had been shaking on and off practically ever since they started heading for the vanishing point.

"And if it doesn't?" Snart questioned and Mick shrugged,

"We crash somewhere in the timeline, probably with no chances of ever getting out, so we hope it's not during the zombie apocalypse and no matter where it is we try not to let Savage kill us." He replied, briefly Len wanted to ask if he were speaking seriously and at some point a zombie apocalypse actually does occur but in the end he decided to just leave it be. "I never did say congratulations by the way." Mick said awkwardly and to be honest Len didn't really know what to say.

He was still trying to get his head around this news that he was apparently going to be a father, and to Sara's baby no less. It was no secret between himself and Mick that he has feelings for the assassin, though he'd never actually confessed it to his friend. Still, the other man knew and had probably known the baby was his partner's before Sara told him (and Len knows that Mick knew before the announcement on the bridge, he was way too smug for it to be the first he heard of it.)

"Thanks," he said in his usual drawl. Mick looked like me might have been about to say something else, to fill the awkward silence if for no other reason, when the ship rocked exceptionally hard and caused both men to grab hold of the nearest solid object in order to maintain their balance.

"Seriously, why did we sign on with Rip?" Snart asked as the rocking finally settled and so the two of them took off marching towards the bridge to check out what exactly is going on.  
.  
.  
.

"I'm remembering what Mr. Snart said about Savage's presence on this ship being a danger to us all." Stein quoted just as the two criminals reached the entryway to the bridge.

"And I was right, now what's going on?" Snart said, getting the attention of the captain and the professor, and already holding his gun.

"It appears that the time drive is in need of repairs but Mr. Jackson is on his way down to the temporal core now to make them." Rip assured the two, not missing how Mick's eyes went wide with concern.

"And Savage?" Snart asked before Mick could voice his own question.

Rip seemed to shrink in on himself a little bit at Leonard's question, prompting the ice-wielding crook to hold his gun a little tighter.

"Rip?" He demanded,

"I sent our resident assassin to check on him," Rip admitted in a small voice, taking note on how Leonard clenched his jaw upon hearing that. "The brig is secure Mr. Snart, and Sara can handle herself." He reminded Len but it did nothing to stop the sneer that formed on his face before her turned on his heel and walked out.

Seeing that Snart's business with Rip was taken care of for now, Mick stepped forward and looked at the captain with an expression that warned of hell to pay if he had done what the pyromaniac was thinking he did.

"Now, what kind of repairs?" He all but growled,  
.  
.  
.

Sara was just marching out of the brig when she bumped right into Snart.

"Sorry," she apologized

"How's Savage?" He asked, his voice making it clear that he doesn't exactly approve of her being the one to have checked on the prisoner.

"Secure," she replied and he nodded.

"How are you?" He asked and to be honest she wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or punch him for worrying so much.

"Fine," she replied before pushing past him, "I'm gonna go talk to Rip, and then I'm gonna take a nap." She called over her shoulder when she felt his eyes still on her.

"Sara," he called but she turned on her heel and looked back at him.

"Snart, I'm just tired." she all but snapped, and it was true. She hadn't slept at all last night thanks to a combination of anxiety from Vandal Savage, the most dangerous man in history, being on board and the nightmares that had come from the previous mission. Normally she could go days without sleep and be just fine, but for whatever reason (and she was fairly certain the baby had a lot to do with it) she was just exhausted and so she decided it'd be better to sleep now while things are calm rather than wait until something bad inevitably happens and she'd have to stay awake for whatever reason. But first she needed to report back to Rip, and more importantly she needed to make some things clear with him.

Snart nodded his understanding, knowing that if he wanted to have a conversation about this particularly fragile subject then he should wait until there is the least percent chance Sara will bite his head off for one wrong word.  
.  
.  
.

"The timeline remains unchanged," Sara made it to Rip's study just in time, no pun intended, to see him check the status of his family again.

"Were you expecting something different?" She asked from the doorway,

"I trust Savage is still secure in the brig?" He asked solemnly, avoiding her question.

"He is, and he says that you'll sell us out in a heartbeat to save your family?" She asked it more than said it, and when he didn't reply she made her way into the room. "Look I get it," she informed him, "I get what you're going through-"

"Oh please!" Rip scoffed in obvious offence to her statement, "How could you possibly know what it is that I'm feeling?" He demanded and she stared him dead in the eye.

"Because yesterday I thought I lost my child," she reminded him, his gaze faltered just a bit at her words. "I don't think I've ever felt about anyone the way you feel about Miranda, so no, I probably can't understand that. But in those moments where I thought my child was dead, I would've given anything to get it back." She said and now Rip's hard gaze fell almost completely, but it turned to one that sounded almost like dread.

"I guess that answers my question," he said and Sara nodded, knowing what it was that he wasn't going to bother asking.

"Snart and I are still working on the details, but I'm having this baby." She deadpanned before meeting Rip's eyes once again. "Look, I signed onto this mission after finding out you lied to us, and I know that Savage is right and you would sell us out in a heartbeat to save your family. But just keep in mind that if it comes down to it, I'm willing to do the same thing to save mine." She warned him before turning on her heel and walking out, now on her way to take that nap.

He didn't tell her about the mission Jax should be completing at any moment.  
.  
.  
.

"We need to get out of here," Mick growled as he came trudging into Snart's room with Jax trailing right behind him.

"Should I even ask?" Snart replied; he was currently sitting on his bed tightening a screw on his cold gun.

"Rip sent me to fix the busted time drive, but conveniently left out the detail that fixing it sends out a radioactive blast that would've killed me!" Jax exclaimed and Len stopped what he was doing mid action, his grip tightening on the screwdriver as his eyes flicked up to Mick who nodded.

"If I'd never been Chronos, he could've gotten away with it and no one would've been the wiser." He said, that prompted Len to holster his gun and get up.

"Kid, grab the nerd twins. Mick, grab Kendra and if she's managed to unlock his brain get Carter while you're at it. I'll get Sara and then we're taking the jump ship out of here." He instructed and while Mick nodded Jax look at him in shock.

"Wait, we're just gonna abandon Rip? And leave him on board with Savage?" He demanded and Len sighed.

"Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do kid, and in this case, unless you want to be sent on another suicide mission, you gotta know when to walk away." He said before moving past him and Mick and heading for Sara's room.  
.  
.  
.

_She was sitting on the bed in the med bay, sobbing._

_Snart was next to her; he looked pale and horrified by the situation. She looked down and the inseams on her white leather pants had been tainted with a dark red. She couldn't feel it, she rarely ever feels within her dreams, but she knew that it was running down her legs._

_Then, suddenly, Kendra appeared._

_She was holding something and there were tears in her eyes as well. Snart looked away and Sara should've followed his example, because Kendra was holding a body._

_It was a little, blood covered body that the blonde just knew wasn't breathing, and she screamed out a loud sob. She screamed, she cried as she fought against Snart putting his hands on her shoulders as she shook._

_"Sara!" He shouted her name, "Sara!" He shouted it again; all the while she was still shaking. Then she realized that she wasn't shaking, he was shaking her. "Sara!" He called her name again and this time she looked at him, but his image became blurry as he fell out of focus. ___  
.  
.  
. 

__"Sara!" Snart exclaimed for a fourth time, sitting on the edge of her bed and shaking her a little harsher than he would've liked to._ _

__When he'd come in he'd found her asleep, tossing and turning and whimpering. He'd tried waking her gently, but she'd only started thrashing more and he was running out of patience._ _

__"What is she dreaming about Gideon?" He finally asked the AI, he didn't want to cross a boundary line and violate Sara's privacy but it was clear that whatever nightmare she's having has a pretty good grip on her._ _

__"It appears that Miss Lance is still suffering some trauma from her episode of slight vaginal bleeding yesterday and is currently having a dream about experiencing some sort of a cross between a miscarriage and a stillbirth." Gideon replied and although he didn't know it Snart now looked as horrified as his counterpart in Sara's dream._ _

__"Sara! Sara wake up! Sara!" He nearly shouted, now shaking her desperately. It was now that her eyes finally flew open and she gasped for breath, all while shooting into a sitting position and locking her arms tightly around his neck._ _

__At first Snart was taken back by this action, especially once she started sobbing into his shoulder. But he wrapped his arms around her and held her firmly against him, giving her time to wake up and process that both she and the baby are okay before he spoke._ _

__"If you EVER have a dream like that again-" He began to whisper in her ear but she cut him off._ _

__"I did last night," she admitted through a sob, he tightened his hold._ _

__"I don't care where we are, what I'm doing, or how long it's been since I last slept. I want you to wake me up and tell me," he told her sternly and she nodded against him in agreement. "Alright," he said soothingly, holding her for another few minutes until she calmed and then finally pulled away._ _

__"Ugh, I think I've cried more in the past three days than I have in my entire life." She joked with a sniffle as she rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand._ _

__"You can blame the pregnancy hormones," He chuckled with a smirk before his face became serious again._ _

__"Rip sent the kid to fix something, conveniently forgot to mention it would kill him." He confessed and Sara's eyes went wide, "Relax, Mick stopped him before he could go through with it." He said but Sara's face was still shocked._ _

__Everything she had told Rip was true, she did know that he would sell them all out to save his family if it came down to it. But selling them out and sending them off to die are two different things._ _

__"We're taking the jump ship," Snart informed her, "I know I can't force you to come-"_ _

__"I'm in," she cut him off quick, causing him to look skeptically at her. She responded to this skepticism not with words, but by reaching over and taking his hand and then guiding it to rest upon her still flat belly. Surprised by her actions, Len's eyes flicked to where she had placed his hand, then up at her face. "As much as I want to help Rip, I am NOT going to lose my family in the process of saving his." She explained, giving Len's hand a gentle and reassuring squeeze._ _

__Twenty minutes ago she had explained to Rip that if the time came, just like he would to her, she would turn her back on him in order to save her child._ _

__Now the time had come._ _


	7. Darkest Before the Dawm

"Are you even listening to me Gray?" Jax questioned, he had just told Stein about what Rip had nearly had him do, and about the plan to take the jump ship, and yet the stubborn old man still wants to stay and help save the world.

"Yes Jefferson I am, and while I am grateful that Mr. Rory was able to prevent you from attempting repairs on the time drive and any consequences that could've followed, we can't just abandon the mission." The older man argued and Jax groaned as he finished with the coffees he was currently making for the two of them, setting Stein's down in front of him before taking a sip of his own.

"Look, bad as I feel about leaving Rip stranded in the time stream, on a broken ship, with Savage, but I have a mom back home who still doesn't know where I've been." He said and Stein looked sympathetic at that, but not like he was about to change his mind. "I'm sorry Gray, but I gotta do what I gotta do." He said, echoing what Snart had told him only minutes ago as Stein took a sip of his coffee.

"I understand Jefferson, but…" he trailed off, running his tongue over his lips as he began to feel lightheaded and put together too late what had happened, although in hindsight he really should've seen it coming.  
.  
.  
.

"Carter's still under Savage's control, and Kendra refuses to leave without him." Mick informed Len when he met him and Sara at the escape pod.

"And Ray refuses to leave without Kendra," Jax added, coming up behind Mick and drawing the attention of all three of his fellow defectors.

"What happened to Stein?" Sara asked, noting the obvious fact that the professor was unconsciously slumped over his young partners shoulder.

"Same thing that got me on this ship," Jax replied as Len opened the escape hatch and they filed into the pod.

"Wait, so we're just leaving half our team here?" Sara questioned as the hatch closed and Jax dumped Stein into the nearest seat.

"We gave them a choice, it's not our problem if they made the wrong one." Mick growled lowly.

"We can't just leave them stranded here with Savage!" Sara argued,

"We agreed to do that to Rip," Len reminded her and she rolled her eyes, she hadn't exactly loved that aspect of the plan to begin with.

"Rip treats us like canon fodder, but we don't treat each other that way!" She argued and Len sighed, hating to admit that she was right and they can't leave the others behind.

"So what do you want to do?" He asked her, "We can't fix the time drive without dying in the process, and we can't drug the others because at least one of them should be smart enough to figure out what we're doing." He reminded, "So what do you want to do?"

She thought on the subject, knowing very well that everything he was saying was true.

"Let's go to the vanishing point," she suggested,

"What?" Jax asked, looking at her as if she was crazy.

"We can't leave Ray, Kendra, and Carter to do die when Savage inevitably gets out of the brig and kills them. So let's go to the vanishing point and tell the Time Counsel about how he's been messing with time; they'll come collect him from the time stream, and we can all go home." She explained, the other three exchanged uneasy glances with each other but ultimately decided that Sara was right. They were all more or less ok with leaving Rip behind, but the others hadn't done anything to deserve this fate.

"You're driving kid," Snart said, looking to Jax and his tone indicating that the final say in the plan belonged to him as the pilot.

"To the vanishing point we go," he agreed before strapping into the pilot's seat.  
.  
.  
.

The trip to the vanishing point was, as it was on the Waverider, a long one. Apparently while traveling through time is both fast and nauseating, traveling through the time stream is slow and not unlike a long drive on the highway. They had been able to make an initial jump further down the stream that Gideon said shortened their equivalent to an eight hour trip by one hour, but seven hours is still boring.

By now they had been in the ship for four hours, Mick had fallen asleep and Stein had woken up. The professor was initially furious to discover that his partner drugged him (to which Jax responded "Now you know how it feels,") but he calmed down when he was told where they were going and what they were doing. He was currently keeping himself entertained with a pencil and notepad that he apparently had in his pocket.

"I should've known getting you to walk away from all this wasn't as easy as it seemed," Snart commented suddenly from where he sat next to Sara. For the most part the entire ship was quiet, save for the scratching of Stein's pencil, and with both him and Jax focused on their own tasks and Mick asleep, Len knew that this was the closest thing to privacy that he was going to get with Sara.

"Hm, you should've." She mused with a grin, "But if it makes you feel any better after this we'll all be heading home to 2016 and I'll hang up my Bo staff, at least for now." She said and he smirked,

"That does make me feel better," he told her and although she smiled she didn't say anything and it was silent for a few more seconds.

"Thank you," she finally said, prompting him to raise an eyebrow at her in confusion.

"For what?" He asked,

"For being here," she replied, "I know it's only been a couple of days and you could still change your mind, and I won't blame you if you do. But I was so afraid that you were going to be mad at me or-"

"Sara," He cut her off, not wanting to hear this. "I'm not mad, I'll admit that I'm still in shock but I'm not mad. And if I ever try to walk away from this then I give you permission to have Queen put an arrow through me." He said and she chuckled.

"Ok," she agreed before stifling a yawn.

"Still tired?" Len asked and she nodded as she rubbed her eyes.

"I think I was only asleep for ten minutes earlier," she replied,

"Well we've still got about three hours to kill; take a nap." He suggested and she nodded before shifting in her seat so that she could slouch and lean her head back against the hard plastic of the chair, folding her arms over her chest in order to get something close to comfortable as her eyes fluttered closed.

Len watched as she adjusted herself, wanting more than anything to tell her to just use him as a pillow. But while they may be having a baby together, something that he still can't really believe, their relationship isn't all that intimate. They had that one night, but it was more about finding some release after what happened during the day than it was about any emotions. For now the two of them are teammates, friends, and soon to be parents of the same baby. They're on a mission through time to stop an insane and immortal man from destroying the world and with that mission being at it's peak they don't have time right now to move forward in their relationship, so for now Len would just have to live with that.  
.  
.  
.

It felt like it had been forever and a day when the ship finally came to what appeared to be a futuristic city floating about in space.

"Is that?" Jax asked as the others all gathered around the window to get a better look.

"The Vanishing Point," Mick confirmed,

"Astonishing," Stein proclaimed, Len was about to mock the old man for his catchphrase but the jump ship beginning to shake cut him off.

"Um, I think I just lost control of the ship." Jax announced,

"That's because we're caught in a tractor beam." Mick explained

Suddenly, the monitors on the jump ship flickered to display the image of an African-American man wearing a yellow suit, reminding most of the jump ship's occupants of a character who might have appeared on Star Trek.

"Jump ship Waverider, we've taken control of your guidance system. Prepare to be boarded." He ordered them,

"Before you bring out the cuffs and throw us in prison let me say this," Snart began, "Agenda's changed and for safety reasons we all jumped ship, but instead of going home we decided to do history a favor and come here instead, and tell you where to find Hunter." He continued, knowing that as of right now the Time Counsel wouldn't give a rat's ass about Savage's location, but Rip's is pretty high on their list.

The man seemed to contemplate what he was saying, before finally speaking.

"I'll arrange an emergency meeting with the Time Counsel."  
.  
.  
.

"Sara Lance, Leonard Snart, Jefferson Jackson, Martin Stein." An older man, roughly Stein's age, dressed in a black robe greeted the team before his eyes settled on Mick and his face contorted in disgust. "Chronos," he said the name as if it left poison on his tongue.

"Hogwarts," Mick replied curtly, he had never had the patience to follow the Harry Potter series but that aside Time Master Druce had always, to him, looked like he belonged teaching magic at the famous boarding school.

"You claim to have information on Captain Hunter's location?" He asked but didn't give them a chance to answer right away, "What, may I ask, caused the change of heart?"

"Well for one thing he tried sending Jax here to reboot a damaged Time Drive," Mick grumbled,

"But he has Savage prisoner and Savage didn't conquer the world the way you think he did," Sara began their explanation.

"He's been using technology from over a century into his own future, he's gained access to time travel." Stein explained and Druce's face paled at the news,

"Where are they?" He questioned,

"Sector 12 of the time stream," Mick replied and Druce nodded.

"I'll send a search party to retrieve them and then I promise you we will get this whole mess straightened out, thank you." With that said he headed to leave, and Len got a bad feeling about what they had just done a little too late. He didn't have time to speak up, not before darkness was consuming his mind.  
.  
.  
.

When Sara came too she did so with a groan at the mixture of a pounding in her head and an unsettling feeling in her stomach.

"Ugh, not again." She whined before kneeling over and heaving up the last few things she had eaten.

She heard a sympathetic sigh from somewhere around her, but paid it no attention. Only once she was done vomiting, for the time being, did she finally take in her surroundings. She was trapped inside of a steel cell with walls that the top halves of were made of windows so that she could see into the cells next to her. On one side of her was Ray and on the other was what appeared to be an empty cell.

"Well, that's one of them back with the living." Ray joked as the blonde in the cell next to him climbed to her feat.

"How…" she took a minute, swallowing a gulp of air as so to keep down the next wave of nausea she was already feeling. "How long have we been out?" She asked and out of the corner of her eye she saw Kendra shaking her head over in the cell on the other side of Ray's.

"We're not sure, they just brought us in." She replied; it was then that they all noticed someone standing up in the cell next to Kendra's, Jax. At almost the same time Stein rose to his feet inside of the cell Sara thought was unoccupied, and the same happened further down the line with what turned out to be Mick and Len's cells.

"Lesson of the day; don't trust a Time Master." Len remarked as he shook off the headache.

"I could've told you that," Mick said and Snart rolled his eyes,

"Why didn't you?" He questioned but before Mick could answer the sound of Sara once again being sick cut through the chance. "Is she alright over there?" Snart asked; trying to see over into Sara's cell but the facts that she was three down and hunched over were working against him.

Sara, who was once again dropped on her knees and adding to the puddle of half digested food on her floor, gave Stein a thumbs up to relay to Leonard.

"Miss Lance says that she's fine," he called over,

"She doesn't sound fine," Len snarled back.

"Well aside from the obvious issue of being sick to her stomach, which I'm guessing is a result of her pregnancy more than it is anything else, she's ok." He confirmed, Len rolled his eyes but didn't press further.

"Where are Rip and Carter?" Jax questioned, taking most of the attention off of Sara.

"We don't know; they never brought them in." Ray answered, glancing at Kendra when he did and wishing he could do something to repair that heartbroken face he had seen her wear so many times today.

Just then the conversation was stopped before it could've had a chance to continue by four guards marching into the room and approaching some of the cells.

"Ah! Gentlemen I missed you! Come on in!" Mick pretty much invited, not seeming at all surprised that two of them were making their way for his cell. Sure enough, they unlocked his door and took hold of him, him cooperating the way Len had always seen him do when being removed from a cell. "That's it, break my arm." He said in an almost cheery voice to the guards as they lead him away.

What was a surprise, although in hindsight maybe it shouldn't have been, was that the other two guards went for Kendra.

"Hey! What are you doing? Why are you taking her?" Ray demanded as one guard led Kendra away harshly by the arm while the other kept a gun pointed at her back. "Hey!" He called out again but didn't have time to say more before Kendra broke out her wings and singlehandedly fought the two guards off.

"Guess all that training paid off," Snart commented as the rest of them watched the fight, but he quickly regretted jinxing it when one of the guards managed to reach his blaster and stun her.

"Hey! Kendra! Kendra!" Ray shouted, now banging harshly on the clear front of his cell.

"Why would they take Kendra?" Jax questioned. Taking Mick they could all understand, it probably had something to do with his past work as Chronos. But Kendra? Why take Kendra?

Considering Ray had already learned that the Time Masters and Savage are all on the same side, he had one unsettling guess.  
.  
.  
.

It felt like hours passed before the guards finally came back in. During those hours not much was said. Ray informed the others that before the Time Master's appeared to arrest them Savage had broken free and nearly killed Kendra, would have if the sight didn't jog Carter's memory and turn him back over to their side. When the guards finally did return they brought a zombie resembling Rip Hunter with them.

"Rip?" Ray asked as the captain was led into the cell that had previously belonged to Kendra, making his gut twist at the silent confirmation that Kendra probably wasn't coming back.

"Rip?" Sara tried, but they still received no answer from the captain.

"My god, they've tortured him." Stein gasped, now realizing that the fates in store for the rest of them may in fact be worse than death.

"What did they do to you?" Ray asked once the guards were gone, Rip finally glanced at him but it was with a very haunted and defeated expression.

"They showed me the truth," he replied in a low whisper, "Druce showed me something called the Oculus; they've been controlling us all. Nothing we've done has been of our own accord. We've been following a script laid out by the Time Masters." He explained and while they all had some difficulty processing that, Ray was the first to say something.

"No," he denied, "That's not possible, I refuse to believe that."

"Well you should Raymond," Rip said, his voice far more serious than any of them wanted to hear it. "Because they showed me your death," he said, Ray felt his heart grow heavy and drop at that.

"Rip, whatever Druce show you-"

"They showed me your death!" Rip suddenly exploded, "Not a possible instance in which you died, no they showed me your DEATH!" He boomed, turning and looking the other man in the eye, "I don't know if you've been paying attention Raymond, but you are not seven years old! There is no such thing as miracles, or true justice, I don't know how in bloody hell it is that you manage to not even SEE the darkness in situations like this but it's here! It's all around us and there is no way out! So if I were you I would grow up and accept the facts before not doing so gets me killed!" He thundered and once he was done the prison went dead silent, everyone's eyes locked on at least one of the two men.

"You want me to be like you Rip?" Ray finally questioned, "Surrender to darkness, sit there in my cell, and tell myself that everything I've ever done was pointless?" He continued before taking half a step closer to the window into his neighbor's cell. "Tell me Rip, before I give it a shot, how's it working out for you?"

Rip didn't answer at first, and to be honest none of them suspected he'd answer at all. But then he finally stopped staring at the floor and looked Ray in the eyes once again.

"Alright Raymond, what's your plan?"

Ray, clearly not having expected Rip to actually put any faith in him, began searching around the room frantically as though something could give him inspiration. Eventually the sight of something did, or someone rather.

"Sara," he said as the plan came to him,

"What?" She asked but he didn't reply, he was too distracted by the wheels turning within his head.

"So far the guards have been coming in teams of two," he thought aloud, suddenly pacing around his cell with renewed motivation as his plan unfolded in his mind. "Two for Mick, two for Kendra, and two for Rip."

"So?" Jax asked, like the others he couldn't see where this was going.

"So who stands a chance against two Vanishing Point prison guards more than an assassin?" Ray asked, looking past Rip and over to Jax.

"Except they're never going to agree to a fight for our freedom deal," Snart commented but Ray ignored him and turned to Rip.

"Can they see or hear us right now?" He asked and Rip shook his head.

"No, because the Vanishing Point exists as being frozen in time camera's don't work here, and because this is the place where the Oculus exists they can't control us either." He confirmed and a pleased grin broke out across Ray's face.

"What about the middle ages?" He asked, "Do they know about what happened to Sara?"

"I don't like where this is going," Sara interrupted,

"Neither do I," Snart seconded, not that either of them were paid any attention to.

"Most likely," Rip confirmed and so now Ray turned around to face Sara.

"What if Gideon was wrong?" He asked, "What if you were starting to miscarry?"  
"Do you know something I don't?" She questioned in a warning tone,

"You've been time jumping, going on dangerous missions, and considering you just found out you're pregnant a few days ago you only recently started eating enough and taking vitamins. So how hard would it be to believe that Gideon was wrong?" He asked again and thanks to the nearly excited smile that he couldn't seemed to wipe of his face Sara was starting to think he had gone off the deep end, until she started to catch on to what he was suggesting and smile back at him.

"Not hard at all," she confirmed; this plan was crazy, but it just might work.


	8. Destiny

The plan was simple.

The prison may not have any cameras but it's for that exact reason that the hallways are built to let sound echo off the walls, to assist the guards in listening for any sounds out of the ordinary. So when they heard the sounds of various voices screaming as loudly as they could down in the holding room they immediately made their way for the room.

The two guards that reported were greeted by the sight of their five male prisoner's pounding on the barriers to their cells and screaming for help, while the one female wasn't immediately in sight. The shouting only continued for a few seconds after the guards entered, and when it stopped they were finally able to hear the sound of someone crying coming from the woman's cell. One of the guards approached it and looked inside; only to see the woman kneeling on the floor, hunched over with her arms crossed tightly over her stomach and face contorted in pain.

Rip looked at the other guard, his mouth open and closing a few times as if he didn't really feel comfortable talking about this.

"As Druce as undoubtedly seen," he finally began, "Miss Lance conceived a child over the course of our mission and experienced what The Waverider's artificial intelligence unit diagnosed as simply vaginal bleeding just yesterday, but for the past hour or so she said she has been experiencing stomach pains and… well… we believe she might be miscarrying." He explained and just as he finished Sara let out a pained cry. The guard didn't do anything at first; he was debating on what should be done in the situation. "Please," Rip said in a begging tone, finally the guard nodded to his partner.

The guard by Sara's cell opened her door before reaching down and grabbing her not so gently by the arm, yanking her harshly up to her feet. She stumbled along with him and continued to do so as his partner came for her other arm, still sobbing all the time. The dragged her halfway across the room before one of her feet finally made a solid step, and she pushed off her toes to roundhouse kick the first guard into unconsciousness. Realizing that they'd been tricked, the remaining guard moved to call for back up but the now free assassin was quick to smash his communicator before engaging him a battle of hand-to-hand combat. He lasted longer than the first guard, if only by a few seconds.

"I am never," Sara said as she wiped her eyes and caught her breath from crying, "doing that again." She deadpanned, walking over to look at the cells but quickly realizing there were no outwardly locks or scanners or anything. "Ok, how do get you guys out of here?"

"You don't," A voice answered her from behind; she turned to see Time Master Declan emerging from the shadows with Chronos.

"They've… They've brainwashed him again." Stein stuttered as they all stared in shock at the bounty hunter before them, his gun aimed right at Sara.

"We were going to keep you alive," Declan began, "Allow you to spend eternity trapped where time doesn't move, let the lonely days slowly drive you mad. But you've made it clear that you would rather die so… Chronos, shoot." He spat the order like Mick was a dog, and that made Snart's teeth grind together almost as much as the sight of his best friend with a gun aimed at Sara.

"Sure thing," Chronos replied, and without warning the bulky man dressed in even bulkier armor turned on his heel and shot Declan.

The others watched in stunned amazement as Mick removed his helmet and slowly stomped over to where Declan lay in paralysis.

"If I remember correctly, I made you a promise." Mick growled,

"Please, don't." Declan begged but Mick raised his cleat-like boot and stomped down on the Time Master's back until his foot went all the way through and squashed his heart.

Everyone still had their eyes glued to him in shock as he raised his head and looked over at Sara, tossing her one of his hard metal gloves.

"There's a trigger on the right side, you need that to undo it." He instructed her before he set to work on Jax, Ray, and Rip's cells while she handled Len and Stein's.  
.  
.  
.

After they escaped the vanishing point and found their way back to the time stream they all realized that their next move could very well be the doing of the Time Masters, so long as they don't return to the vanishing point. The Oculus doesn't work inside of the vanishing point; their escape was most likely proof of that. So the new plan became to forget about Savage for the time being and instead go and return free will to the world, by destroying the Oculus. It was after that plan was decided and Rip was working on a strategy while the Waverider put some distance between them and the Vanishing Point before it would turn back around and reenter closer to the Oculus wellspring that Len showed up in Sara's open door with his deck of cards.

"Not in the mood," she told him bluntly. She was currently lying on her back with her hands resting comfortably on her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling.

"You're a master assassin and I'm a master criminal, now I don't know about you but I can't think of one good reason why the Time Master's would put it in their little script for us to have a child together." He mused while inviting himself inside.

"Sounds like a plan for disaster," Sara agreed before sitting up against her wall. "But, we were in a pocket dimension of the temporal zone when we made the kid, so maybe it wasn't part of their plan after all." She mused and Len hummed in thought as he leaned against the side of her bed.

"I hope not," he admitted, absentmindedly shuffling the cards. "I've always prided myself on being the guy who doesn't play by the rules, but come to find out, I'm the one being played." He mused and Sara frowned,

"I don't know, I still feel responsible for everything I've done, and it still keeps me up at night." She admitted,

"It's the things I didn't do that keep me up at night," Len countered and Sara found herself laughing.

"Really?" She asked, "Because I can think of one thing you did do that should be keeping you up." She teased and he smirked in amusement.

"Give it a few months and I'm sure it will be," he mused before tilting his head back to look at her. "My vote still hasn't changed," he informed her and she smiled.

"Mine either," she replied and so Len took that as his cue to join her in sitting on the bed.

"So… we're having a baby together." He mused and Sara hummed in agreement.

"We are," she said before turning her head to meet his gaze, "What do you want to do?" She asked,

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't really want to go through that whole mess of joint custody agreements and who knows what else if we don't have to." She confessed and he took a minute to process what she had just said, what she had really said.

"You want to try and be a family," He stated the fact more than he asked about it, and she shrugged in response.

"I'm not saying we should get married, I don't exactly want to be a pregnant bride anyway, but maybe we could just try being together?" She asked and he smirked,

"And here I thought I was going to have to beg you to give that a chance," he said and Sara found herself smiling at him before he leaned over and gave her a kiss.

She kissed him back eagerly, moving one hand up to cup his jaw as he did the same to her. The kiss was short, and nowhere near as passionate as the night that had landed them in this predicament in the first place, but it was far more loving. That night had been about forgetting and losing each other to their activities. This, even though it was just a kiss, conveyed a promise. No matter what happened, no matter if this whole being together thing worked out or not, they were never going to leave each other. They would always be there for each other and for their child; neither of them was going anywhere.

"I am sorry to interrupt," Gideon's voice rang just as the two broke apart for some air, "But Captain Hunter wishes for me to inform you that we have arrived at the Oculus wellspring and asks that you both report to the cargo bay immediately." She said,

"Finish this later crook?" Sara asked just as Len slid off her bed with a smirk.

"Sounds good assassin."  
.  
.  
.

Once in the cargo bay and prepared for the battle ahead they did a quick recap of the plan.

"Dr. Palmer will deactivate the core containing the scaled down supernova which powers the Oculus, which should result in an a very big explosion." Rip concluded the brief run through.

"Sounds simple," Snart said skeptically, knowing full well that things with this team are never simple.

"Yes well, don't forget there is probably going to be an infinite number of guards shooting at us." The captain added and then, as if to prove his point, the ships power went down without a word from Gideon and the red emergency lights went on. "Doctor Palmer?" Rip asked with a sigh and Ray nodded, knowing that was his cue to shrink down. "Here we go," Rip muttered once Ray was no longer visible, and with that he opened the hanger door.  
.  
.  
.

Stepping outside all seemed quiet; like the Time Masters might not even know they're there.

"So how far do you think we'll get before your friends decide to come out and play?" Sara questioned as they walked across the structure that wasn't unlike some kind of park.

"Hopefully at least halfway to the wellspring," Rip answered her, "If we're lucky," he added a moment later. It was in that moment, however, that Druce and his pals rounded the corner with their blasters aimed right at the group.

"Hello Rip," Druce greeted, "Right on time." He mocked just to watch the snarl on Rip's face before he turned to his minions. "Kill them," he ordered.

The guards aimed their guns on the group and more came out doing the same from behind. Each member of the team looked to each other questioningly. They had prepared for an onslaught attack, not to be cornered and slowly threatened in a position where at least the first shot from a guard was practically guaranteed to make it's target. Then, suddenly, there was a blast; and Druce fell.

Everyone, the team and the guards, whipped their heads to look at the guard who had shot Druce in shock. But the treacherous guard didn't stare back at them; instead he simply turned and started firing on his fellow guards. Picking up their mystery savior's example Len and Mick started blasting away while Firestorm merged and began their own assault from the air. Sara took on guards with her staff while Rip charged off towards the Oculus where a tiny Ray should already be working, most likely with guards already on him.

"Mr. Rory, come help me cover Dr. Palmer!" The captain called over his shoulder and surprisingly enough, Mick listened.

The others stayed where they were and fought until the only guard left standing was the one who was inexplicably on their side.

"Gray says we should follow Rip, reinforcements will be going to the wellspring." Jax informed the group as he landed but didn't unmerge with his partner, knowing that the battle is still far from over.

"First things first," Len snarled before turning on his heel to face the guard who had helped them. "Who are you?" He demanded and in response the guard raised his hands and removed his helmet.

"Carter?" Sara asked when she saw the face of their friend.

"Savage ordered I be killed, unfortunately for him he didn't stick around to do it himself and I've been executed more than enough times to know how to fight my way out." He explained and just then more guards showed up.

Without another word the team began taking on their fresh batch of attackers, and at every free chance he got Leonard found himself glancing over at Sara. Eventually he ended up fighting his way over to her, not that she needed the help from him, and Rip finally came racing out of the building that housed the Oculus.

"We need to get out of here!" He exclaimed, skidding to a stop next to Leonard and Sara.

"Where are Raymond and Mick?" Snart demanded,

"Ray is in my pocket and Mick has elected to stay," Rip confessed, already dreading the other criminal's response to the news.

"Why?" Len demanded without missing a beat, somehow not surprised that they were being expected to leave someone behind.

"Someone needs to be present to destroy the Oculus, Mick has elected himself." Rip explained and without another word Len took off towards the building, despite protests from both Rip and Jax.

Sara, having heard the entire conversation, went running right on Snart's heels and followed him.  
.  
.  
.

Inside the building the two of them spotted Mick standing on a rather large platform, the wellspring, smack dab in the center of the room with one arm inside some type of machine and the other extended out with his gun as he fired at any guards coming towards him. As the two of them approached Sara was quick to grab a blaster off of a fallen guard and start shooting while nodding to Leonard to go do what he needs to do.

"Mick!" Snart called as he stepped up on the platform,

"Get out of here!" Mick ordered with barely a glance over his shoulder.

Len froze an oncoming guard, "Not without you Mick!"

"Pretty boy says someone needs to hold this stick down, so I'm holding this stick! Now leave!" The pyromaniac snarled and Len sighed, he really didn't want to have to do this.

"My old friend, please forgive me." He requested,

"For what?" Mick asked but he got his answer when Snart brought up his gun and fired it on his hand.

Mick howled out in pain, gaining Sara's attention and she quickly joined the two on the platform.

"What are you doing?" She demanded of Snart just as he finished, making sure that the controls of the failsafe were frozen well enough that there was no chance it would disengage.

"I need you to break his wrist!" He ordered Sara as he moved to stand behind Mick and catch him when he stumbled backwards with pain.

"What?" Mick demanded as Sara nodded and took hold of his arm and held half of her collapsed staff in front of his face.

"You're going to want to bite down on this," she warned him and despite the wildly confused look in his eyes he took the rod in his mouth. "Ok, on three. One, two, three!" Just as she said the final number she twisted and pushed him arm at an angle that separated it from his frozen hand.

Mick bit down harshly on her staff and grunted in pain as he fell back blindly and found himself slung over Snart's shoulder before he eve knew what happened.  
.  
.  
.

To be honest, Rip didn't think any of the three were going to make it back to the Waverider in time. So when Sara and Leonard came into sight with Mick slung over Mr. Snart's shoulder has he ran, well Rip didn't know whether to be elated or terrified.

"Don't worry, bombs still going off." Sara informed him as she sped onto the ship,

"So we better get moving!" Snart all but growled as he raced past the two still standing in the cargo hold.

"Right, Gideon get us out of here!" Rip ordered as the hanger door closed and he raced off to the bridge, still wondering how the heck the Oculus was still going to detonate.  
.  
.  
.

"You're an idiot," Mick deadpanned from Snart's open doorway a few hours later. He had gotten a new hand courtesy of Gideon but considering Rip's family had already been murdered, Kendra is currently lost to history with Savage and is probably dead by now, and the timeline has been destroyed leaving them no way of finding Savage, the new hand was pretty much all the progress they had made.

"For knocking up an assassin or for letting her follow me into a bomb room?" Snart asked as his partner stepped inside and took a seat on the desk chair.

"Both," he replied, "But I meant for going in after me."

"I'm not leaving you behind again Mick, I already made that mistake once." Snart said,

"And while appreciate your concern, and am thankful to be alive, you could've died in there." Mick said

"What's your point?"

"My point is," The arsonist began with a serious expression, "That things have changed, it's not just you and me against the world anymore. You've got a family now. If I die, I'm sure you'll miss me, but that'd be extent of the effect on people. If you die… well then you're damning a kid to never know it's father and Sara to raise it all alone when you and I both know she's not so sure she could handle that." He lectured,

"You and I also both know that she's wrong," Len said, avoiding the request Mick was trying to ask of him as much as possible.

"Does it matter?" The other man asked, "I don't know what's going to happen to any of us once this mission is over, but if it ever comes down to something like what happened today again, don't bother with me unless you KNOW you can get out too." He requested and at first his friend wouldn't meet his eyes, mostly because he knew he was right.

"When did things get so complicated Mick?" He finally asked and Mick smirked.

"When you decided you had feelings for Lance," he replied.

"Don't know if you heard her wrong, but I knocked her up during the night at the service station, AFTER you became Chronos." Snart reminded his friend.

"Oh I heard her, but I became Chronos because you guys ditched me after I sold you out to the pirates. I sold you out to the pirates because you dragged me out of 2046, and you dragged me out of 2046 because Wilson was hunting Sara." Mick listed and now Len finally flicked his eyes up at him. "What? You think I seriously believed you were worried about Rip?" He questioned with a teasing expression and Len sighed in annoyance.

"You're smarter than people think Mick," he finally said and Mick chuckled as he got up to leave.

"Yup," He agreed and with that he left the room, leaving Snart to chuckle smile silently to himself. He was just glad that when it counted everything more or less finally managed to go according to plan.


	9. Home Not so Sweet Home

"What are we doing back here?" Mick demanded when the Waverider finally landed and they found themselves standing in the exact vacant lot that they had started this mission in.

"Savage has a time ship thanks to the Time Masters, the timeline is unclear thanks to our destruction of the Oculus, meaning-"

"Savage is lost to history," Stein cut Rip off and the Englishman nodded.

"Which is why I've brought you all home." He confessed,

"What?" Jax asked, "The missions not over," he protested and Carter folded his arms.

"Besides, Savage still has Kendra, and despite the many lives I've lived I've never gone through one without her, and I'm not starting now." He deadpanned, turning on his heel and starting on his way back to the Waverider, only for the massive ship to take off.

As it did the others all turned to Rip, who suddenly began fading in and out like a hologram.

"I'm sorry for all that I've asked of you, and I'm sorry that due to some extenuating circumstances I had to bring you back to May 2016." The hologram admitted,

"Wait what?" Sara demanded,

"I wish you all well," The hologram said and with that it faded out and the ship was gone.

"I never liked that guy," Mick growled as they watched the ship take off.

"So now what?" Ray asked after they had all stood there for a solid two minutes in silence.

"Now, we go home." Len replied,

"You're just giving up?" Ray demanded,

"I don't think it counts as giving up when your captain kicks you off the team, or in this case, disbands the team." He defended and Ray looked as though he might be about to say something else if it weren't for Jax cutting him off.

"He's right," he agreed, turning all heads towards him.

"Jefferson?" Stein questioned

"This is 2016 man, no such thing as time travel here so we can't chase after him. Now if anybody needs me, I'll be on my way to Central City to tell my mom that I'm alive." He said and with that he began his way out of the lot, and one by one the other Central City residents of the group followed him; all except for Snart who turned in the other direction with Sara and Ray.

"You're not going with them back to Central City?" Ray asked and Sara seemed surprised as well, but at the same time she wasn't all that surprised. They had decided they were going to try being together, but suddenly that just got a lot more complicated with being dropped back home.

"I'll catch a later train," Snart excused, "Sara and I have some things that we need to discuss first." He explained,

"Right," Ray said, taking the hint for once in his life. "I'm uh… huh, I don't know what I'm going to do actually." He mused, suddenly remembering that he doesn't really have anything or anyone here at home that he's desperate to see.

"I'm sure you'll figure something out," Sara assured him as they reached the end of the lot and she and Leonard split ways from Ray.  
.  
.  
.

"Did we ever reach a year where Big Belly Burger had gone out of business?" Leonard asked twenty minutes later when he and Sara had found themselves in the Star City location of the chain restaurant.

"I didn't see one in 2166 but then again it was London, and under rule by Savage." Sara mused as she dipped a fry into her strawberry shake. "What?" She asked, noticing that Snart was staring at her.

"You're not going to become one of those pregnant women who puts pickles in ice cream, are you?" He asked, fully aware that there was a fifty percent chance the question might get him slapped. But thankfully Sara just scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"If you ever see me eating pickles and ice cream, there is something psychologically wrong with me." She said before pointing her fry at him, "Besides, I dipped fries in shakes long before I was pregnant." She defended and he nodded,

"Fair enough, so what are we going to do?" He asked, now taking a bite of his burger.

"Well," Sara began but then paused to swallow her food, "If we're going to be together then I see two options," she said and he nodded.

"Which one do you prefer?" He asked

"I'd like to ask you the same question," She countered and he nodded, he'd expected that response. Sara isn't the type to push for her own way.

"I've been on the move ever since I was about twenty-five, but that being said Central City is the only place I've ever stayed for longer than six months, by a long shot. Now with that also having been said, I have nothing against moving to Star City." He told her seriously and she nodded,

"I don't want to try raising a baby while traveling," she deadpanned, "Because when people like you and me travel-"

"It usually means someone's either going to die or get robbed." He finished for her and she nodded.

"Exactly," she agreed, "But if we're going to be in one place, I'd rather it be Central." She said and he raised an eyebrow at her, "I tried coming back to Star City after I quit the league but too much had changed." She admitted,

"Here?" Len asked, thinking that somehow the city wasn't her problem and sure enough she shook her head.

"With me," she clarified, "I want to go start over and considering your sister and Mick are in Central City, and so is my mom, why not?" She asked and he nodded.

"Ok, that's one thing decided." He agreed, secretly happy that she wanted to go live in Central City. "But if you're going to be moving to Central then we might want to tell your friends while you're here." He suggested,

"That I'm moving or that I'm pregnant?" She asked,

"Both," he replied, "It's up to you but I just think they might like to know," he continued and she nodded.

"I'll call Laurel after lunch, see where everybody is." She said,

"Sounds like a plan," Len agreed.

"Maybe I should wait up here," Snart suggested when he and Sara found themselves in the vacant building that sat above the Arrow Cave. Her sister hadn't answered her phone and neither had anyone else, so they figured that the team's secret lair would be their best bet.  
.  
.  
.

"Nervous Snart?" Sara teased,

"We're walking into a secret lair full of lethal arrows, a few guns, some swords, and probably a multitude of other weapons. Based on what you've told me, almost everyone down there knows how to use those weapons, and we're telling them that I knocked you up. So sorry if I'm a little apprehensive about it." He apologized and Sara snickered.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." She promised jokingly before grabbing his hand and leading him into the secret elevator, neither of them commenting on how they spent the entire decent hand in hand.

"Hello?" Sara called when the elevator opened up and revealed that the cave was surprisingly empty. "Hello?" She called again,

"Well no one's home, let's try again later." Len said at the exact moment Sara spotted her father sitting up at the computer console.

"Hang on," she said to Snart in an annoyed voice as she pulled him alone with her, her father now having spotted both of them.

Snart knew who the man was, having seen his younger counterpart when they rescued their loved ones from the Pilgrim. He hadn't talked to him, or even officially met him, and even if he had it wouldn't matter thanks to the amnesia pill. Therefor he was not exactly looking forward to the first conversation he'd ever have with Sara's father being "Hello sir, I knocked up your daughter." Lord knows that even his own father, who didn't give two shits about his children, would've put any man six feet under for doing such a thing to Lisa; assuming Leonard himself somehow didn't get to him first that is. So he didn't even want to imagine what a man who not only cares about but in fact loves his daughter would do, he was starting to think he'd sooner take his chances with the Green Arrow.

"Sara," Quentin breathed out in surprise as his daughter ran up to hug him, letting go of the hand of the man she was with.

"Hi daddy," she said with a happy smile, she hadn't realized how much she had missed her father over the course of the mission.

"Baby, what are you doing here? When did you get back?" The former captain asked his daughter.

"I just got back," she answered and finally Lance looked past her and to Leonard.

"Who's this?" He asked; Sara looked over her shoulder as though she had forgotten Snart was there.

"This is Leonard," she replied, turning back to her father. "Don't worry, we can trust him."

Snart had expected Sara's father to flip out just at that, but then again this is Sara they're dealing with, it's probably not the first time she's had to assure her father that he can trust some seemingly random stranger she's brought home. Still, the man's face looked unsettlingly haunted and that motivated Len to keep his mouth shut, put all thoughts of how he would die for impregnating Sara on the back burner, and just observe.

"I tried calling but nobody's answering, figured they'd all be down here." Sara said, obviously confused as to why no one was picking up their cell phones and yet it was only her father down here in the bunker.

"Yeah, Damian Darhk's been causing problems." Lance replied, his face now even more nervous and haunted, not that Sara noticed.

"Well good to know nothing's changed in five months," Sara mused, "Other than-" She began to mumble, and Len knew why, but her father didn't even hear her and so he cut her off.

"Listen baby, there's something… there's something I need to tell you." He said and she smirked at him,

"There's something I- dad?" Sara cut herself off this time, finally realizing the hallow expression on her father's face. "Dad what's wrong? Is everything ok?" She asked, she was smiling, already in denial despite not knowing what her father needed to tell her.

Lance took a few deep breaths, whatever he had to say; it was serious. "No baby," he finally said,

"You're starting to scare me," Sara said and Len took that as his cue. He moved from where he had been standing in the background to up behind Sara on the platform, she and her father both noticed but while the former captain didn't react Sara began to look even more nervous.

"Damian Darhk was in prison, and he escaped." Lance finally started, looking as though each word took a considerable amount of effort to speak. "Everyone tried to stop him… but your sister… honey she, she um…" Quentin was beginning to cry at this point, as was Sara.

"No, dad no." She tried to deny the situation but Lance's face conveyed that, sadly, this was no joke.

"I'm sorry baby," he said, taking a step forward but she stepped back as her tears grew stronger, only to find herself stepping on Leonard's toes and his arms wrapping firmly around her waist before she could pull away. She fought him for a minute, tried to run, but he tightened his hold ever so slightly and took half a step forward, consequently forcing her to do the same.

Fortunately her father took the hint from the gesture and reached out to take his daughter from her friend. All Sara really registered was that she was being guided into her father's arms and that Laurel is gone.

"I've got you, I've got you." Quentin whispered into her ear as she finally stopped fighting and sobbed into his chest and hugged him tightly. He also looked over his daughter's shoulder at Leonard and with his eyes conveyed an unspoken "thank you", to which Len nodded a silent "No problem".

However despite his calm demeanor it would be a rather large understatement to say that Len felt awkward in this situation. He had absolutely no idea what to do with himself and felt as if he were intruding on a very private family matter. He couldn't even imagine how Sara was feeling; he would never be able to handle losing Lisa. He wanted to leave, but he didn't exactly know where he would go. He could always go sit upstairs in the empty building, but what if someone from Team Arrow came home and saw the wanted criminal just hanging out in their upstairs? He didn't really need to think much more on the matter though, because it was around now that Sara pulled out of her father's arms and began wiping at her eyes again.

"Sara-" Her dad started but she cut him off,

"When?" She demanded,

"A little over a month ago," Quentin said with a sigh and Sara nodded as she continued to scrub at her eyes, sniffling as she tried to calm her tears.

It was at that moment that Len decided he'd take his chances with a bunch of vigilantes discovering him alone in their upstairs and turned to go but he stopped short upon hearing the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned to see Sara coming towards him, and when she reached him she simply marched past him.

"Sara?" He asked; she didn't even look over her shoulder.

"We're going to get Rip back here," she stated, plane and simple.

Len looked to Quentin for an idea of what to do but the older man looked about as dumbfounded as he was. The thing is, Len isn't exactly sure how much Quentin Lance knows about what his daughter has been doing for the past five months and so he has reason to doubt that he understands the extremes of what she's about to attempt.

"Sara!" He called, turning on his heel and chasing after her, she didn't turn around until she was in the elevator and giving him a deadly glare that said you're either with me or against me. So naturally he went with her.  
.  
.  
.

"Sara, Sara, Sara!" Len called as he chased her down the street, they'd walked nearly two blocks by this point and all the while she was walking briskly ahead of him and not speaking.

"What?" She finally demanded, spinning on her heel and finally facing him. It was getting dark, so there weren't too many people on the streets to hear the argument that was no doubt about to ensue.

"Would you _please _slow down and think about what you're doing?" He pleaded with her as he finally caught up.__

__"I'm going to get my sister back, that's what I'm doing!" She explained, the look in her eyes one of wild determination and Len knew that if she hadn't spent those extra two years with the League of Assassins there would be a very good chance he could be dealing with a bloodlust controlled Sara right now._ _

__"I know that, but you don't have a plan." He told her calmly and finally she seemed to stop and catch her breath. "You can't exactly just go to the vacant lot and hope Rip will show up, for that we need someone who can signal a time ship." He told her and she nodded,_ _

__"Ok," she admitted, her voice finally calm. "Whose that?" She asked and Len sighed,_ _

__"I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered as he pulled out his cellphone and punched in Raymond's number._ _


	10. The Things You Do for Love

"We've been back in 2016 for five minutes and already I'm going down to the police station with bail money." Sara complained as she and Len sat on the train bound for Central City.

When they called Ray he said it wasn't really the best time, then they heard police sirens in the background. After that Ray had hung up the phone and the two of them headed for the train station, where Ray must have gone immediately after leaving the lot. Halfway through the train ride Sara got a call from Ray, who was in a holding cell. Apparently Mick went back to his old habits fairly quickly and Ray, for only God knows what reason, surprised him as his getaway driver. They were making their escape when Ray answered Snart's call, the cop pulled him over for being on his cell phone, realized he and Mick were the guys the other cops were chasing, and arrested them. Ray used his one phone call to inform Sara of the situation and promise to pay her back the bail money.

"I just thought I'd be on the other side of the bars," Snart mused and Sara hummed in agreement.

"That's another thing, no more getting arrested." She said, "Because no offence but I don't want it to be a common occurrence in this kid's life that I wake it up in the middle of the night and tell it to get in the car because we have to go get daddy out of jail." She tried to say it as a joke, but the attempt fell flat. She wasn't exactly in a joking mood given all that had just happened, and meanwhile this was the first time she had ever referred to him as the baby's daddy and so Leonard couldn't help but have his thoughts derail for a moment; somehow hearing that word made this whole baby thing all the more real all of a sudden.

"Got it," he finally agreed, "And while we're on the subject, I have a condition for you." He said and across from him she straightened up in her seat.

"And what's that?" She asked as if it were a challenge.

"No more running off and rejoining the League of Assassins," he deadpanned and she chuckled, for a split second she had actually been worried there.

"No problem," she assured him before leaning her head back and squeezing her eyes shut.

"You ok?" Len asked and she gave a slight nod.

"I think I'm getting motion sickness," she muttered, "Ugh, this baby is turning me into a wimp." She complained and Len couldn't hide his chuckle at that.

"You're not a wimp," he assured her and despite the fact that she was still leaning her head back he didn't miss the way she raised an eyebrow at him.

She smirked and looked like she wanted to say something before she instead squeezed her eyes shut tighter. "Oh god," she groaned quietly, "Oh god I think I'm actually going to throw up," she moaned.  
Snart, upon hearing that, began fumbling around for a bag only to find one just in the nick of time. He all but shoved it into Sara's hands and she took it greedily before emptying the contents of her stomach into it, this was going to be a long nine months.  
.  
.  
.

The next morning found not only them and the recently released bank robbers, but also the rest of the team, back in the vacant lot outside of Star City. Stein and Ray each had their own little nerd devices that apparently they had prepared after the 1950's incident to be able to signal the Waverider.

"Are we sure this is going to work?" Sara asked a few minutes after they supposedly sent out their signal but still nothing had happened.

"Have patience, Miss Lance." Stein said,

"It is taking awhile for a time machine to show up," Carter said in agreement with Sara. With Kendra still lost he was arguably more impatient and on edge than his grieving teammate.

"And if this is anything like 1958, he's not going to show up." Sara all but snapped; the threat of tears at the idea of this not working was evident in her voice. She was trying her best to keep her emotions under control, but between losing Laurel and the pregnancy hormones that wasn't exactly an easy task.

"Rip found my beacon in 1958," Ray reminded her,

"It took him two years!" Now she had snapped, and while she did feel a little guilty about it she didn't have a chance to dwell on it because that was when the sweet and familiar sound of a spaceship rang out from the sky above them.

They all watched as the Waverider landed and Rip came marching out, looking to be a strange combination of pissed off, amused, and maybe even a little proud.

"I thought I made my intentions perfectly clear," He stated, that was definitely the pissed off part talking.

"And we wish to be equally clear about ours," Stein said as Mick walked up and shoved Rip in the shoulder.

"Just checking to be sure you were real this time," He explained when the captain looked at him incredulously.

"We can all go our separate ways when the mission's over, but like I said it's not over." Jax deadpanned, his face making it evident that he was very serious.

"Just curious, how much luck have you had tracking Savage without us?" Ray questioned,

"None," Rip replied, "But neither have I put dwarf star alloy into the hands of terrorists in 1975." He said to Ray before looking around at the others, "Nor have I been turned into a mutant bird monster, started any bar fights, or put the power of nuclear people into the hands of the Soviets during the cold war!" He exclaimed,

"We get your point," Mick cut in, "Now get ours, that ship's not taking off without us." He growled seriously, looking Rip dead in the eye.

After a few seconds of thinking, Rip nodded, and they all headed back to the ship.  
.  
.  
.

It was the moment they were back on the bridge of the Waverider that all hell broke loose.

First Sara punched Rip in the face, much to the amusement of Mick, and then she held him by the collar of his shirt against the wall with a knife at his throat.

"You knew," she growled, "You dropped us off five months later because you knew that Laurel was going to die! Now you're going to take me back, and I'm going to save my sister." She demanded, the rest of the team, including Snart, knew better than to interfere with this.

"I'm afraid th-"

"You should be afraid," Sara said in a deadly calm voice.

"I can't allow you-"

"I don't care about the timeline!" Sara shouted, punching the wall with one hand and pressing her knife closer to Rip's neck with the other. "You're taking me back now!" She demanded,

"Sara," Len interrupted,

"What Snart?" She snarled, not turning around to face him.

"Put the knife down," he ordered calmly but she wasn't having it.

"No!" She all but cried, then pushed the weapon nearly into the skin of Rip's throat.

"Put it down Sara," he said it a little more commandingly this time,

"No!" She cried again, although clearly it was now registering with her that he was right and if she wanted to go back and save Laurel she needs to go about it calmly; but she was far from calm right now.

"Put-" Mick cut Len off by grabbing hold of one of Rip's stun guns and using it on Sara, catching her over his shoulder as she fell into unconsciousness.

"What the hell Rip?" Jax demanded, still unable to believe that after recruiting all of them in order to save his family he had just let Sara's sister die while they were gone.

"Mr. Rory, take Miss Lance to sleep it off." The Captain ordered Mick, ignoring Jax. Mick, in turn, ignored Rip and instead of doing as he was asked he passed Sara into Leonard's arms. His partner took her bridal style in his own arms and disappeared from the bridge, leaving the others to figure out a plan.  
.  
.  
.

Snart brought Sara to her room and carefully place her on her bed. He thought briefly about heading back to the bridge with the others but ultimately decided it might be best for him to stay in here, if he went out there he just might pick up where Sara left off. So instead he just sat on the edge of her bed and brushed a few hands of blonde hair out of her face before allowing his eyes to trail down to her stomach. How far along had she said she was? Two months? A little less?

Everything that's happened lately has happened so fast he hasn't really been able to think much about her being pregnant. He only found out when he did because she thought she was in the middle of a miscarriage, and then they jumped immediately to 2166 which needless to say did not go as planned. Long story short he hadn't exactly had the chance to freak out, and now he was grateful for that. The time for that had passed, the baby was no longer a question; it was a fact. It would be born; he and Sara would raise it together, and that's that. Still, just because he knew this was true, doesn't mean that he wasn't afraid. Sure he'd practically raised Lisa, but it's a little easier to raise a kid when you know you're not the one the cops will come find if something happens, not that the cops ever did. But still, a newborn is drastically different from a seven-year-old, which is about the age Lisa was when he started to take over as the one primarily in charge of her.

But with this, everything would be so much different. This is his child, his responsibility, and he's extremely grateful that Sara wants to try doing this together. She had thanked him for staying while they were on the jump ship, if only she knew it's her that he needs to thank for staying. He told her he wanted to keep it, and at the time he knew that could've meant he was volunteering to be a single parent; and he can't handle that. He did his best with Lisa, but they were both still in and out of Juvie and jail. He could never handle a newborn on his own, and honestly, Sara made it clear that if only one of them were to decide they wanted the baby then they could never be in each others lives again and there is no way he can live without Sara in his life.

Just then Sara stirred in her sleep before she woke up, her eyes instantly filling with tears. Snart didn't know what to say to her, what anyone could possibly say in this situation, but he didn't need to figure it out. Sara just sat up as she started crying, and he knew that there was nothing he could say. Instead, he pulled her into his arms and let her cry into his chest.

By the time the door to the room finally slid open and revealed Rip standing on the other side Sara had cried herself out. She was sitting there on her bed, still wrapped in Leonard's arms, but done crying.

"Please try very hard not to kill me," Rip requested from the doorway.

"Me or her?" Len asked the captain who was now stepping into the room.

"Both of you," he replied,

"Rip," Sara's voice came out as barely a whisper, "Please take me back." She begged, "I need to save my sister," she continued, the threat of tears now returning to her voice.

"I want to Sara, but I can't." Rip replied and now Sara untangled herself from Len and approached the captain.

"You of all people should understand-"

"Sara, if you were to try and save Laurel then you wouldn't be alive at all." Rip cut her off,

"Fine, I don't care." Sara immediately argued and the look on Rip's face showed just how much he really didn't want to play the card that he was about to.

"What about your baby?" He finally asked; that stopped Sara in her tracks. "When I recruited you, we altered the timeline. Had you not agreed to come with me then Damian Darhk would've killed not only you and your sister, but your father as well. I could bring you back Sara; but Laurel will still die and along with her so will your father, and you… and now your baby." He told her, and she lost it.

She hit her knees, breaking down and sobbing right there, and despite what Rip had just said Len made one decision as he got down on the floor to help Sara; he was going to make sure there really was no other way to get her sister back.  
.  
.  
.

"I thought we went over this already," Rip said hours later after they had finally defeated Savage, and he nearly died in the process, when they were docked in the temporal zone so that the team could have a chance to think over their captain's offer of becoming the new Time Masters before seeing their loved ones. But apparently Leonard Snart had other ideas. He had come to Rip's office and asked about going back and saving Laurel Lance.

"We did, but I thought about what you said about recruiting Sara altering the timeline."

"Then why are we having this conversation?" Rip demanded,

"Because you're forgetting one detail, we destroyed the timeline." Len reminded and at that Rip appeared to be rather thoughtful. "Whose to say that Sara and her father dying wasn't originally all part of the Time Master's plan?" He questioned, now folding his arms and slowly pacing around the office before he leaned over Rip's desk. "We brought free will back into the world, and now I suggest we use it." He said and still Rip appeared thoughtful.

"One chance," he finally agreed, "I will give you one chance at this."

"That's all I ask," Len said with a grin, he already had a plan.  
.  
.  
.

Despite the fact that the timeline had indeed been destroyed they weren't about to take the chance of meddling with the battle because someone would end up dead. No, the safest rout, much as Sara wished there were another option, was to allow Laurel to be stabbed and for Ollie to carry her out of the prison while Darhk makes his escape. The difference is that instead of running Laurel all the way to the hospital he only got outside of the prison before he ran right into Ray.

"Ray?" He asked, last he knew his friend was on a mission through time.

"Hi Oliver, look I'm sure you've got a lot of questions but right now you need to follow me." The genius ordered,

"I can't-"

"Oliver please, she's not going to make it if you don't." Ray said.

Oliver looked down at the dying woman, his best friend, in his arms as she coughed up even more blood than she had already. He knew Ray had been traveling through time, so he knew he had to be right when he said that Laurel wouldn't make it, so he followed him. They ran into the prison yard where, suddenly, a spaceship appeared in the middle of the courtyard. Oliver didn't have time to question it, although under any other circumstances he would have, and instead just chased Ray onto the large ship and into it's med bay.  
.  
.  
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She hadn't thought it would work. Honestly, Len's plan for how to save Laurel had been so simple that Sara truly hadn't thought it was going to work. But yet her sister was now here in the med bay recovering, sedated, but recovering. Gideon said that Laurel was expected to fully heal from her injuries, and when asked about the good fortune suddenly turning like it supposedly had in the original timeline the AI was quite confident that no such event would occur, but she would notify them if it did. So now Sara was sitting by Laurel's bedside, a position that she hadn't left in three hours, when Ollie came and stood in the doorway.

"Rip says that in order to keep both you and Laurel safe you guys are going to jump to sometime in the future, but that's all he could tell me." The former playboy said, clearly a little disappointed that the man from the future had refused to give him information for defeating Darhk. "I'm going back now, to tell the team that Laurel died and wanted the doctors to cremate her body. We'll bury a jar of dirt and assuming I see either of you again, we'll be in a lot of trouble for lying to the team." He said and Sara chuckled,

"Don't worry, I'll have the worst of it." She teased, knowing that Ollie was going to be fuming when he finds out that she's pregnant. She didn't intend to tell him that until she and Laurel land in May, no use getting him all confused when she tells him she's two months pregnant in January and then still looks the same come May.

"I doubt that," he said with an honest smile, "You saved the world."

She smirked at that and motioned for him to pull up a chair alongside her before he had to go. He did as she silently commanded and for a peaceful moment or two they just sat in a nice silence.

"I'm not saying you won't see her again, because you will see us both again, but if you weren't going to… what would you say to her?" She asked; she had to know. Oliver very well could've lost Laurel tonight, and maybe it has been a long time since the two of them dated but that doesn't change the fact that it's always been Oliver and Laurel, and it always should be.

"I'd tell her I'm sorry," he finally said after a minute of thought, his eyes suddenly refusing to meet hers. "I've apologized to her time and time again for cheating on her, with you and a few other times." Sara raised an eyebrow at him, not that this was news to her in the least. "I have brought so much unnecessary darkness into Laurel's life, even before the Gambit. When I became the Arrow I tried to protect her from that darkness for once but…" He trailed off, and so Sara repositioned her head to try and get a look into his eyes.

"Ollie," she said and finally he looked away from his twiddling thumbs and to her. "Laurel never wanted to be protected from that darkness, believe me I tried too. But she loves us, and if we're going to stare down demons then she'll be right by our sides, you know that." She said and he nodded,

"I know," he admitted, "Through everything that I've been through, through all of the complete hell I have put her through, Laurel has stuck by me." He said and Sara smiled before her friend got up. "I hope I see you guys soon, because I am going to miss you." He said before giving her a gentle kiss on the head and then doing the same to Laurel.

Ollie hadn't been gone longer than two minutes when Sara heard a familiar drawl in the doorway.

"I don't have to worry about that guy do I?" It asked and she turned to see Snart standing there with his arms folded and a teasing smirk on his face. Upon seeing him Sara burst out into a smile and stood from her seat, only for Snart to hold up a hand to stop her.

"Sit down," he instructed, "I came in here to join you." He said before taking what had been Ollie's seat.

"How is she?" He finally asked and Sara beamed,

"Gideon says she'll wake up in a few hours, and that she'll be just fine." She said and Len smiled at the news. "Thank you," Sara continued,

"No problem," he said back,

"Snart, I mean it." She said and the seriousness in her voice prompted him to give her his full attention. "Laurel is probably the only other person I think would do anything like this for me, thank you." She said again,

"You're welcome," Len replied and the next thing he knew he was leaning over, Sara leaning to meet him halfway, and they were kissing. They kissed for a good thirty seconds before pulling apart.

"I love you," Sara muttered, however a second later she appeared to be just as shocked by the words as he was. "I'm sorry, I-" But she didn't get to finish. Snart cut her off by cupping her cheeks and pulling her back to him, kissing her again and more intensely before pulling away once more.

"I love you too," he breathed; a smile illuminated Sara's face before she kissed him for the third time.


	11. Bombs Away

When Laurel woke up and found that Sara's mission was over she was thrilled, and she was even more thrilled to hear that her sister had started seeing somebody while on this crazy time ship. When she found out Sara was pregnant however, thrilled isn't exactly the emotion she showed. At first her reaction was very similar to Stein's in that she accused Sara of lying. Sara tried to tell Laurel that she was in fact telling the truth but clearly her sister was in denial. Even when she was shown the ultrasound picture Laurel still couldn't believe that Sara was pregnant, but when she finally did accept the facts she nearly murdered Snart. When they all returned home they were shocked to discover that after the defeat of Darhk most of team Arrow had disbanded, only Oliver and Felicity had remained.

Ollie took the news of Sara's pregnancy about as well as Laurel had, although it may have gone slightly better because once the denial had passed he didn't try and kill the father. Felicity, by far, reacted the most positively to the news; giving Sara a hug once she got over the shock. They called Captain Lace, and considering he nearly fainted with the pure shock of Laurel being alive Sara decided to hold off on the baby bomb for a little while longer. But as she moved to Central City and found an apartment with Len, a job at S.T.A.R. Labs as a weapons specialist (which after Len found out about he begged her to go work literally anywhere else.) she started to lose track of time and how long it had been since she'd seen her father last, but it wasn't long before she was reminded that her time to tell him was running out.

Although Sara would never admit this out loud, she's actually more conscious of her body and her figure than most people would think. It's not really her fault; she was born on the lighter side of a healthy baby weight at seven pounds and three ounces and she then grew to become one of those little girls who has nothing to her other than skin and bones. She got lucky during puberty and filled out in such a way that it didn't leave her with a single stretch mark. Long story short, she had always been relatively thin and never weighed more than 125 pounds. She knew, she always knew, that pregnancy was going to change that but just because she knew it was coming doesn't mean she wasn't a little surprised when it finally started to.

She first noticed it one morning when she stripped off her shirt in order to take a shower, just happening to catch her reflection in the bathroom mirror at such an angle that made her freeze. It wasn't visible when she had clothes on, especially not under the baggy t-shirt she had worn to bed, but she noticed that her lower belly was protruding slightly as though she were bloated. She knew, of course, that she wasn't bloated and she wasn't simply getting fat either. She looked at her reflection in awe, not yet daring to look down and study the small bump without aid of the mirror yet. It felt as if after all these weeks of throwing up, which thank god had finally started to settle down, she had earned this. She had earned the right to see proof of her baby from the outside, proof that didn't leave a vile taste on her tongue.

It was at that moment that her phone began going off and when she looked at the I.D. her father's image came up and thus reminded her of something she needs to take care of, and by the looks of things she needs to do it soon.

"Hello," she answered the phone,

"Hey sweetie, are you busy tomorrow night?" He asked, after all the business with Damian Darhk was over and Quentin was unfortunately discharged from the SCPD, he had been staying with Donna at her place outside of Las Vegas but he had been talking about coming up to visit soon; well apparently soon had come.

"Um, I don't know, why?" She asked,

"Donna and I are going to Laurel's and she asked that I call and invite you and that boyfriend of yours." He explained, not sounding too thrilled to be inviting Len. He's a former detective, so he's looked him up since their first meeting, and he was less than impressed by the criminal record that he found. Sara, Laurel, Felicity, Oliver (whose still a little skeptical himself), and even Barry had tried telling him that Leonard has changed but it's always futile. They all know that Quentin is just going to have to get used to him with time; and maybe if it weren't for the fact that the crook had knocked Sara up they just might stand a chance at that.

"Um, yeah that sounds great." She said, no it doesn't sound great, but better to tell her dad in person about the baby than over the phone.

Once she hung up with him she took her shower and got dressed, making a mental note that her although her clothes weren't feeling too tight yet the fact that she could see the beginning's of her baby bump probably means that she should get some new clothes soon. With that in mind she grabbed her purse and slipped on her shoes and headed out of the apartment.  
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When Dinah Lance heard that her oldest daughter was alive, she was overjoyed. The first thing she had done was call out of work and hop the first train to Star City to see Laurel. She had only stayed a few days, but it was still amazing to see her daughter again. Now, that same feeling was almost replicated when her younger daughter came knocking on the open door of her office with a smile.

"Sara!" Dinah exclaimed,

"Hi mom," Sara said as her mother stood from her chair and hurried to give her a hug.

"What are you doing here? Is everything ok?" She asked as she pulled away and laid a hand on Sara's cheek as though to study it for tears.

"Everything's fine mom," Sara laughed, "Don't worry nobody's dead," she assured her, wanting to add that the reason for her visit is in fact the exact opposite situation.

"I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by and see if you had time to go out to lunch?" She asked and at first her mother seemed very surprised by the offer, but soon enough a smile was spreading across her face.

"Sure, just let me finish grading these last few papers." She agreed and Sara nodded,

"Take your time," Sara said, just because she needs to do this doesn't mean she isn't going to put it off for as long as she can.  
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"So how long are you in Central City for?" Dinah questioned her daughter roughly an hour later while the two of them were seated in a booth at a pub that Len had shown her. Dinah had been a bit skeptical at first but Sara insisted that the food was good. She was thankful that her mom took her at her word, because she didn't want to admit that the real reason she was so instant on going there was because she was desperately craving a burger from the place.

"Um, I'm actually living here." Sara answered through a mouth half full of her lunch.

"Living here like crashing with a friend for a few nights or-"

"Living here like I'm done traveling," Sara cut her mom off, trying to contain her own smile when she saw the beaming excitement on the older woman's face.

"Honey that's great!" She congratulated, "When, how long have you been here?" She asked, she had seen Sara in Star City a month ago when she went to visit Laurel, so she knew it couldn't have been that long.

"About a month," she admitted, not surprised at all when her mother's face fell. "I came about two days after you left Star City," she continued, now her mother just looked plain offended. "I know I should've told you I was moving here sooner but I just wanted to get everything settled first," she said in defense and while Dinah still didn't look happy about not being informed, she nodded.

"Alright," she finally said whilst picking at her fries. "Well considering I was mostly focused on Laurel the last time I saw you, which I apologize for-"

"Mom, you thought she was dead for two months, don't be sorry." Sara interrupted, her mother still doesn't know about the time traveling or even that Laurel is Black Canary, so she only thought Laurel was dead whereas Quentin had figured out that it probably wasn't a coincidence that his time traveling daughter had heard the news of her sister's death only for said sister to show up alive a few hours later.

"Still, I never got to ask you where you've been." Dinah said, just because she doesn't know about time travel doesn't mean she didn't know her younger daughter had been traveling.

"I went to a lot of places," Sara answered cryptically, "And I uh… I met someone." She confessed, nearly regretting it when her mom got this knowing gleam in her eye.

"Met someone?" She asked tauntingly,

"Mom!" Sara groaned in embarrassment, suddenly wishing that Snart hadn't been back in Central City by the time her mom showed up in Star City but he had to go pick up Lisa because her latest prison sentence was up.

While Felicity was currently the placeholder for best reaction to the pregnancy, Lisa had by far had the most comical reaction. They'd told her a few days after Sara came up, and her first response was to slap Len. She then asked Sara if it was true and when the blonde confirmed it she slapped her brother again. After that she asked a few standard questions like "when?" and "are you keeping it?" and all that stuff. Once that was taken care of she congratulated them both and hugged Sara first and then Leonard, and upon pulling away she slapped him one more time.

"I just want to know," Dinah defended, pulling Sara out of her memories. "What are they like?" She asked and Sara beamed, maybe she could do this.

"First off, his name is Leonard." She started and her mom nodded, signaling her to continue. "I met him while I was traveling, he's a good guy and we were friends for while before we decided to be together. But um, before that decision was made we did kind of hook up once." She admitted and in response Dinah chuckled uncomfortably,  
"Honey, while I am very well aware neither you nor your sister are a virgin, I don't really need that information." She said and Sara cringed, here comes the hard part.

"Normally no," she agreed, "But in this case I think you should because turns out… I'm pregnant." She finally just spat it out and for a moment her mom just stared at her. "Mom?" She finally asked after a full minute when it really didn't look like Dinah was going to respond. "Mom?" She asked again, "Earth to Dinah," she said, beginning to snap her fingers in the older woman's face and that finally got a response, even if it was in the form of Dinah simply swatting away her daughter's hand.

"Are you?… Honey you're not together just because of that are you?" She finally asked and with surprised eyes, because that was not the first thing she had expected her mother to say, Sara began shaking her head.

"No, us being together was a long time coming and it would've happened anyways." She assured her, and she truly believed it.

"Good," Dinah said with a nod, slowly getting her bearings. "How far along are you?" She asked,

"Thirteen weeks," Sara replied with a cringe, knowing her mother was going to be upset she didn't tell her while they were in Star City. "Dad doesn't know yet either," she admitted and that sparked her mom's attention, "I'm telling him tomorrow night, Leonard and I are going down to Laurel's because she invited dad over." She said and at that her mom chuckled,

"He'll try and arrest your boyfriend," she warned and Sara smirked,

"Oh believe me, he's already threatened to." She said to which Dinah looked confused.

"He knows about Leonard, he does not know about the baby." Sara clarified and her mother nodded.

"Well good luck telling him," she said,

"Thanks," Sara replied.

"So when can I meet this Leonard?" Dinah asked and Sara thought on the question.

"Soon," she promised, "After we get back from Star City and dealing with dad." Her mom seemed to accept that answer and so with that said they continued on with their lunch as if today were just a normal day.  
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"I told my mom today," Sara said later on that night while she and Len were curled up on the couch and watching Game of Thrones, which was currently on commercial.

"Oh yeah, how did she take it?" He asked, he had his arm around her shoulders and he pulled her just ever so closer when she started to shift in her seat.

"Surprisingly well," she told him, settling down with her head now on his shoulder.

"Is that any indication on how your father is going to take it?" He asked and she sighed,

"Well my parents have always been polar opposites, so whatever my mom is ok with dad usually has a problem." She said and now it was Len's turn to sigh.

"You're sure I can't stay behind?" He asked, "Or we can't just tell him over the phone?"

"No," Sara laughed, "It won't be that bad, at any rate we'll at least have Laurel on our side." She said and Len hummed in agreement. "Hey," Sara said, looking up at him with a playful gleam in her eye. "I have something to show you," she said and he arched a curious eyebrow at her.

"What's that?" He inquired and so with a smile Sara readjusted herself so that she was lying on her back with her head in his lap. Once she was settled she reached down and rolled shirt up to her chest.

At first Len didn't quite know what exactly he was supposed to be looking at but he also is not an idiot and so obviously when she pulled up her shirt he looked to her belly. At first he didn't see anything out of the ordinary but then he noticed that normally the base of her rib cage is usually more defined than it appeared to be right now, of course it could've just been the way she's lying. It really just looked as though she were holding her breath in order to puff out her stomach ever so slightly, but based on how relaxed her face was he knew that this was also not the case. That left him with only one possible conclusion, and when he came to it he bent down and kissed her lips. He then pulled away and kissed her again, only this time he went further down and kissed her stomach. When she giggled lightly in response to the tickle of his lips on her bare flesh he decided to keep at it until somewhere between him slowly working his way up her body and her slowly inching her way down the couch they met face to face and he found her lips again. By this point he was half on top of her but he was mindful to brace most of his weight on the couch. He slipped his thumbs under her bra as they kissed and, despite her reluctance to stop kissing him, she pulled away just long enough for him to slip that and her shirt over her head. She then crashed her lips back to his and began pulling at the back of his shirt until he broke their kiss long enough to help her get it off.  
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"Are you ready?" Len asked as he and Sara walked hand in hand down the hall to Laurel's apartment.

"Don't have much of a choice now do I?" She asked with a sigh,

"Ok so you're about as ready as I am," he mused and she smirked, purposely leaning into him and causing them both to stumble a step or two.

They knocked on the door and Laurel answered,

"Hey guys," she greeted them, giving Sara a hug and smiling at Len.

"Hey, dad here yet?" Sara asked and Laurel nodded while releasing her from the hug.

"Yup," she answered,

"Is everything ok?" Sara asked, not missing the frustration in her sister's voice.

"Oh yeah it's just Felicity and Oliver got into a fight and now Donna and Felicity are going at it and we can't have one family dinner without fighting can we?" She asked and Sara chuckled,

"No we can't," She answered as her and Len stepped into the apartment. It didn't really surprise her that Felicity and Ollie were here; she'd expected Laurel to invite Felicity because her mom would want to see her and with both his teammates held up at family dinner what else was Oliver supposed to do on a Friday night? He's kind of outgrown the whole club scene, and besides it's a known fact that when Laurel has to suffer so does Oliver sooner or later. He either goes through it with her or listens to her rant about it afterwards.

As they entered the apartment Sara noticed that Laurel was right and Donna and Felicity were standing in the kitchen arguing over some nonsense.

"And I thought my family dinners were loud," Len whispered into Sara's ear. She smirked at the idea of him, Mick, and Lisa all gathered around some fold out table or something else that was haphazardly assembled and trying to have a family dinner.

"They'll get over it eventually," Oliver assured as he approached the two and shook Len's hand before pulling Sara in for a hug. "Are you going to tell him tonight?" He whispered into her ear.

"Yup," she whispered back, as he released her he sent her a look that said _good luck. ___

__Dinner went reasonably well for a total of five minutes, and then former captain Lance opened his mouth._ _

__"So Leonard, what have you been up to lately?" He asked, ever since he discovered Len's record he seemed to have made it his personal mission to prove that he hadn't changed._ _

__"Dad," Laurel pleaded with her father,_ _

__"I've been working with a friend of mine installing air-conditioners and fixing furnaces, that kind of stuff." The ex-crook replied, and it was true. He had an old prison buddy who turned his life around two years ago and started a business, Len knew when he left the guy had been looking for some help and now he figured, why not? He talked to the guy and he gave him a chance and so far things were going pretty good._ _

__"Where'd you learn to do that?" Quentin asked,_ _

__"Dad give it a rest," Sara practically snarled,_ _

__"I don't know actually," Leonard admitted, completely ignoring his girlfriend very much like he had her sister. "Somewhere between breaking in and out of places, and having been the one to install and repair almost every appliance we ever had in our house growing up." He said and Sara could see it in her father's face that he was trying to find something else to pick at, so she decided to beat him to the punch._ _

__"So not that this isn't fun but why did you ask us all to come here tonight?" She questioned, prompting everyone to look over at Quentin who turned to Donna, who nodded back to him. He took a deep breath, as if he was nervous._ _

__"Donna and I have decided to get married," he announced, gaining a varying degree of reactions._ _

__In order from worst to best it would've started with Felicity, who was choking on her meatloaf. The next would probably be Sara with her eye about a mile out of her head, after that would come Laurel who was clearly stunned speechless. Next you had Oliver who was too distracted by hitting Felicity on the back to give his own response to the news, and finally Len whose face had hardly changed at all with the announcement, in fact he actually looked a little more comfortable than he had before._ _

__"Uh…" Laurel finally got out,_ _

__"Felicity-"_ _

__"I'm fine mom," Felicity cut off her mother while swatting Oliver away from her. "I'm fine just… wow." She said, still choking a little bit._ _

__"Should we still tell them that you're pregnant?" Len whispered to Sara,_ _

__"Might as well, just give them a minute." Sara whispered back and Len nodded._ _

__"Come on, are you all really this upset?" Quentin asked once Felicity managed to get air back into her lungs._ _

__"We're not upset," Laurel assured her father,_ _

__"Just surprised," Oliver added and Felicity and Sara nodded their agreements._ _

__"Yeah when did you guys decide this?" Felicity asked,_ _

__"Well after a few weeks of living together we realized that neither one of us wants to be alone for the rest of our lives and we've been dating for awhile so we figured, why not?" Donna explained, "And it's just going to be a small wedding," she quickly added._ _

__"Right, probably just us and you kids." Quentin added on,_ _

__"I just have one request," Sara spoke up, taking her father's claim as a good enough cue to work her and Leonard's own news into the evening._ _

__"And what's that?" Her dad asked, honestly expecting her to make some kind of a joke about this._ _

__"Would you mind waiting until after your grandchild is born to get married so they can be there?" She asked, Laurel faced palmed at her sister's decision to reveal her pregnancy right now while her father and soon to be stepmother just stared at her._ _

__"What?" Quentin finally asked, "Sara, what are you talking about?" He continued to question but an excited smile was quickly spreading across Donna's face as she connected the dots._ _

__"Mom, mom, mom." Felicity said urgently, hoping to maybe calm her mother but with no such luck._ _

__"Are you?" The older woman asked in excitement and Sara nodded, causing Donna to squeal while her fiancé just sat there motionless even as she grabbed his arm in excitement._ _

__"I think his heart might have stopped," Len half joked when Sara's father still showed no reaction other than staring at his daughter._ _


	12. All is Fair in Love and War

Well the good news is Quentin Lance's heart was in fact still beating after hearing the news from his youngest daughter. The bad news is that if it had stopped beating for just long enough to make him pass out things might actually have gone a little more calmly. Once he got over the shock his first reaction was to attempt a dive across the table with his hands clenched to wring Leonard's neck. Len actually jumped out of his chair with some slight fear at this development while Donna and Oliver each stood and grabbed one of Quentin's arms and tried pulling him back into his seat. Needless to say, there was a lot of shouting involved in all of this but by the time things finally settled everyone was on their feet except for Quentin, who was being forcibly held to his chair by his fiancée and Oliver.

"Quentin, honey calm down. This is a good thing," Donna tried convincing him once she and Oliver had silently deemed it safe to release the former captain from their grips.

Quentin just sat there for a minute, angrily glaring at his youngest daughter and her boyfriend.

"Well I'd say this has been an eventful night," Felicity said in an attempt at breaking the heavy silence.

"Dad," Sara said when her father's anger looked like it was slowly being replaced by disappointment.

"I think you should go Sara," he said to her, which let the record show broke her heart.

"Dad," Laurel stepped in, sounding equally as shocked as Sara looked. But he ignored her and held his gaze with Sara who nodded.

"Ok," she agreed and so she grabbed Leonard by the hand and led him out of the apartment.  
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"Well that could've gone better," Len deadpanned as he and Sara took their seats on the last train to Central City of the night.

"Oh yeah," Sara agreed, "A lot better."

"So whose left?" Len asked, "Just the two who left Star City and that girl you told me about?" He continued and Sara thought on it for a second before smirking at the reminder.

"I already told Sin the first time we were in Star City after bringing Laurel back," she told him, "But as for Thea and John, I was thinking that maybe we could have a little fun with that." She suggested evilly.

"Fun like how?" Len asked and the devilish grin she gave him told him that he already liked whatever plan she had.

"Well I asked Ollie and Laurel not to tell them because I wanted to do it myself, but now I'm thinking, maybe we don't tell them?" She suggested and Len raised an eyebrow at her.

"I doubt anyone is going to react as badly as your father," he assured her but she only laughed.

"It's not that," she assured him, "I was just thinking that the looks on their faces would be priceless when they found out the hard way." She mused and he laughed while putting an arm around her shoulders.

"I like the way you think Canary," he joked and she smirked.

"I have an ultrasound tomorrow, are you coming?" She asked,

"Well considering I missed the last one I think it's only right that I tag along," he replied,

"Hey that last one was not an official ultrasound, that was me making sure I hadn't killed the baby when I drank Mick under the table." She defended as she grabbed ahold of Len's hand and leaned her head onto his shoulder. "Think my dad will get over it?" She asked,

"Of course he will," Len assured her, "He might kill me first but he'll be ok, and he'll love his grandchild." He said and Sara found herself laughing.

"He won't kill you, I won't let him." She promised and Len smirked before placing a kiss to the top of her head.  
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Meanwhile, back in Star City, Laurel and her father were cleaning up from dinner and it could certainly be going better.

"What did you want me to say Laurel?" Quentin demanded as his oldest daughter dropped a plate into her sink.

"I don't know, but I didn't want you to kick her out of my apartment!" Laurel snapped in response, wondering why she hadn't kicked him out yet.

"I didn't kick her out, I just told her it'd be best if she left!" Her father defended, and that was the last straw for Laurel.

"Why dad? Why?" She demanded, crossing her arms over her chest and stepping into her father's bubble of personal space. "Because you were going to murder her boyfriend?" She asked and when her dad rolled his eyes at the word boyfriend Laurel had had enough. "Look I don't know if you've somehow forgotten this in the excitement of being engaged, which by the way thanks for asking your kids how they would feel about a step-parent, but Sara has been through a lot. I don't know what it is with you, but every time she leaves your vision of who she is starts to warp. Len's made some mistakes but so has Sara. She was an assassin, she tortured people, and she turned it around on that mission; who's to say Len didn't do the same?" She asked and Quentin sighed, "Look I don't blame you for being mad, I grabbed Len by the collar of his shirt and pinned him against a wall when I found out. But after everything they've been through, I think they're both a little more nervous about this baby than they'll admit and I don't think you kicking them out is much help." She said this part gently before leaving the kitchen and leaving her father to think on her words.  
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"So this is your first appointment?" Dr. Kinsolving asked Sara and Leonard when they walked into the examination room.

"Yes," Sara answered, she wasn't really lying considering it was their first actual appointment. Besides, she couldn't exactly explain that the Artificial Intelligence of a time machine was the last "person" to examine her.

"Ok well what we're going to do today is just check and make sure everything is alright with the baby, check the heartbeat and things like that." She explained and Sara nodded to show that she understood. With that explained they started and it wasn't long before the doctor had the wand on Sara's stomach, searching for the baby within her.

Len was holding Sara's hand firmly and, if he's being honest, he was a little anxious. Sure he had seen the ultrasound Gideon had run but he's now discovering that there's a big difference from the small picture Sara carries around to the moving screen in the doctor's office.

It didn't take long for the image of the baby to appear and when it did Sara squeezed Len's hand as he leaned down to get a closer look. The baby was in the center of the screen this time, but that might have been not only because Sara's farther along but also Kendra hadn't been entirely sure of what she was doing when she gave the seven-week ultrasound. However it wasn't the position of the baby that had it's parents so mesmerized, it was it's appearance. It actually looked like a baby this time as opposed to a little gray blob. It had a very distinct head and body, the arms and legs were less defined but they were still clearly there. Sara even thought she could make out the tiny shape of its little nose.

"The baby's heart rate seems to be at 146 beats per minute, which is good." The doctor said, checking something off in her file. "It's a little too early to tell the sex but we might be able to do that at your next appointment, if you want to know that is." She continued and Sara and Len exchanged glances, they hadn't even thought about that yet. The doctor proceeded to scribble down a few more notes in some unreadable form of cursive before taking the wand off Sara's stomach and handing her a towel for the gel. "Ok everything look good and based on this I would estimate your due date at December 19th," the doctor said and while Leonard nodded in acceptance of that Sara looked like she had been thrown for a little more of a loop.

"December 19th?" She asked and the doctor nodded,

"Yes, but it's very common for first time moms to deliver late so if nothing's happened yet by that time there's no need to panic." She explained and Sara nodded, although it was obvious that something about the due date was still making her uncomfortable. "So I'll see you back here in six weeks, did you want me to print out any pictures?" The doctor asked in an attempt to break the awkward tension that had at some point fallen over the room. Sara and Len exchanged a quick glance before Sara nodded. "Ok, I'll be right back."

Once the doctor was gone Len found himself sighing.

"So what do you have planned for December 19th, besides giving birth?" He asked but instead of throwing the sarcasm back at him Sara just groaned as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the chair.

"You just had to knock me up during present day March, didn't you?" She asked, doing some quick mental math.

"If memory serves, the little escapade that led us to this situation was your idea." He pointed out,

"Technically it was you who supplied the defective condom." Sara defended herself, but of course Len had an answer to that.

"How was I supposed to know it was defective?" He asked,

"Maybe look at it before putting it on?" Sara suggested,

"One, from what I recall, you're the one who put it on me without looking at it after I opened it. Two, why don't you just tell me what your problem is with December 19th before one of us says something we'll end up regretting?" He asked,

"I don't have a problem with it!" Sara suddenly snapped, "And even if I did, there's nothing I can do about it!" She continued and Len knew it was for his best interest that he not tell her to calm down. So far she hadn't shown any signs of those pregnancy mood swings people always talk about and he was starting to believe they just might be a myth, but this right here proved him wrong.

Sure she had cried a lot in the beginning, and although she chose to blame the hormones he knew that those tears were damn well justified. Intense things that no person, under any circumstance, should ever have to experience brought them on; and she dealt with it all in the matter of a few days. Those weren't mood swings, a little intense for Sara maybe, but not irrational. This now though, this was not Sara talking. This was all of the natural chemicals flowing through her veins, the unbalanced levels quickly making her short tempered.

It was then that the doctor returned, much to Len's relief, and handed Sara an appointment card as well as a small strip of pictures.

"Alright you two are all set," she informed them and so Sara faked a smile, because she was still pissed off at her boyfriend, and hopped off of the chair. She walked briskly out of the office and left Len to stand there to face the puzzled doctor.

"I don't suppose you can medicate her for mood swings?" He asked sarcastically, which Dr. Kinsolving could tell so she smiled at him sympathetically.  
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"Are you ok?" Quentin asked Donna as she and him headed back on the highway for the drive back to Las Vegas.

"Fine," Donna replied, "Are you ok?" She asked him but when he didn't answer she just gave a sigh. "Look Quentin I get it, she's your little girl. If Felicity had ever come home and told me she was pregnant I would've been furious, and it would not have helped to know that the boyfriend has a criminal record." She said,

"So now I'm right?" Lance asked,

"There is no right or wrong here Quentin," Donna said to him in that sweetly sympathetic voice of hers. "Look, Sara is having this baby, and you know she is because otherwise she wouldn't have asked we wait until after it's born to have the wedding." She said before he could argue that his daughter may not actually keep the baby, but even if Donna didn't say anything he knew she would. "Leonard sounded like he's really trying to turn his life around, maybe he's changed. And if he hasn't then Sara's going to need a place to come home to if things go south, so I doubt you'll want her afraid to come to you." She advised; deep down they both knew it would never come to that.  
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Sara was still in a foul mood when Len left the apartment to go to work for the afternoon, he and his friend only had one job today, and when he got back he found her standing in the kitchenette and wiping some kind of gunk off the countertop with a scowl on her face.

"Everything ok?" He asked, toeing off his boots and leaving them discarded next to the door.

"Yeah," Sara huffed, "I just spilt something." She said as she tossed her paper towel into the trash. "I'm sorry, about earlier. I didn't mean to snap at you," she apologized, although her mood didn't seem to have improved much.

"It's ok," Len assured her,

"No it's not," she quickly contradicted. "Look I was embarrassed and I tried joking my way out of it but you weren't letting it go and… I'm sorry." She said as her boyfriend took a seat at the barstool on the opposite side of the counter and studied her.

"What were you embarrassed about?" He asked and despite not wanting to Sara found herself leaning on her elbows on the counter and putting her head in her hands before slowly bringing it back up with her eyes still closed.

"It's so close to Christmas," She finally complained, "I know it's a stupid thing to be worried about but I was born on Christmas and I always hated my birthday as a kid because I could never have a party on my actual birthday and the 19th isn't going to be much better because everyone is worrying about the holiday's and- god what is wrong with me?" She cut herself off when the smallest hint of a crack hit her voice.

"Nothing's wrong with you," Len assured her as he stood up and came around the counter. He stopped behind her, putting his arms around her and pulling her back against him. "You're just-"

"I know," she cut him off; she didn't want to hear him call her hormonal or anything despite it being the truth. She really didn't want to admit that she was struggling to control her emotions considering that very skill is something she prides herself on. He obeyed her more or less unspoken request and instead of trying to reassure her verbally he pressed a kiss to the crook of her neck, to which she moaned softly in pleasure.

"Whatever you spilled, why don't we forget about it and order Chinese food?" He suggested, remembering a few occasions on the Waverider when he'd found Sara eating fried rice after a particularly hard mission.

"That sounds great," she agreed with a smile, her earlier mood almost completely forgotten.  
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It was nearly midnight, and Quentin knew that he should just wait until morning for this but he just couldn't let himself put it off another second. With a deep breath he picked up his phone and entered Sara's number with only a moments hesitation. It rang four times on the other end, and he really thought that she might be asleep, but then her voice came on.

"Hello?" She answered,

"Hi Sara, it's me." He said nervously, he knew she was debating on reminding him that she has caller I.D. and so she knew it was him before she even picked up, and he was half hoping she would.

"What do you want?" She asked bluntly, clearly not in the mood to be ridiculed.

"I uh, I want to apologize." He said and she was silent on the other end, "What I said to you, telling you to leave dinner, it wasn't right. I'm happy for you Sara, I really am, it's just that; honey you saying that you're pregnant was the last thing I expected to hear." He explained and at this point he wasn't entirely sure she was still there. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"Thanks dad," she finally said, letting him know that she hadn't hung up on him.

"And I didn't get the chance to tell you this but I'm really excited for you and Donna," she told him and that made him smile.

"Thanks baby," he said, "Now it's late, go get some sleep."

"Ok, goodnight dad."

"Goodnight baby."


	13. Sisters, Mothers, and Captains

"So your dad's ok with everything?" Lisa asked when she and Sara were sitting in the main room of S.T.A.R. Labs while the other members of team Flash were all out for various reasons. Cisco was still in the building, but he was down in his workshop.

"I mean we thought we were going to have to bring him to the hospital when he first found out but now that he's got his head around it he's ok." Sara answered, taking a bite of her burger.

"And how are you doing?" Lisa asked through a mouthful of her fries, Cisco was probably going to kill them both for eating so close to the computers but then again the look he would get on his face is the main reason they decided to do it.

"Pretty much the same," Sara replied with a shrug but Lisa shook her head.

"I meant about the whole step-mother thing," she clarified

"Oh, I don't know." Sara answered, "I mean I don't really know Donna but she seems nice enough, and she can't be that bad if she raised Felicity."

"I don't know Felicity," Lisa reminded but before Sara could've started talking about the innocent blabbermouth Cisco walked in and glared at both of them.

"What are you doing here Glider?" He asked the brunette, "Aside from ruining my computers," He exclaimed upon noticing the girls' lunch and quickly trying to take it but they both beat him to it, snatching the food into their laps. "Just keep your milkshakes, away from my tech." He commanded; looking like a child whose hand had just been slapped away from the cookie sheet.

"Actually we got sodas," Sara told him,

"Rule still applies," he said sternly, not that either of the girls listened.

"And to answer you're question, Lenny tells me that he's not allowed to get arrested once the kid comes and I'm not allowed to have all the fun. So I figure maybe I'll take a page out of his and Sara's book, maybe try playing hero." She suggested and while Sara smiled Cisco rolled his eyes at the notion.

"Just what I need, you standing there every time I turn around." He said, sending a teasing smirk her way when he noticed that she might have actually thought he was serious.

"Well Sara and I are also going shopping later, so technically I just met her early." She added and at that Cisco raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know about you," he said, pointing a screwdriver at Lisa. "But you hate shopping," he continued, now pointing his tool towards Sara.

"Yeah but unless you want me to start wearing Len's clothes to work, I need to go." She said and Cisco shrugged.

"We don't really have a dress code here so I mean you could," he said in a flat attempt at a joke, the girls chose to simply roll their eyes and ignore him.

"So how did things go with your mom?" Lisa decided to ask and Sara shrugged.

"So far, better than with my dad," she replied, "I'm trying to find a way other than dinner to introduce her to Len so it doesn't feel awkward." She said,

"Yeah, that's a hard one." Lisa agreed, knowing that having Dinah over for dinner was probably the easiest way to introduce her to Leonard.

"Doesn't your mom work at the university?" Cisco asked from where he was tinkering with his Vibe goggles.

"Yeah," Sara answered while taking a sip of her soda. "So what?"

"So they're having an open house this weekend, why don't you drag Snart down and go say hi?" He suggested and Sara pointed a finger at him as she nodded.

"That could work," she agreed, "She hates open houses, she always gets board sitting at the tables all day." The more she thought about Cisco's idea, the more she liked it. It would be public so that her mom couldn't press too hard on any issues, and they could get in and out fast meaning that they wouldn't have to sit around with her mother for hours; it was perfect.

"Great, we've got a plan! Let's go shopping!" Lisa exclaimed with a clap of her hands and stood up, prompting Sara to follow her.

"No stealing!" Cisco called after the two of them,

"No promises!" Lisa called back.  
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Shopping with Lisa had gone pretty well, or about as well as it can go when you're an ex-assassin who hates shopping and needs to buy maternity clothes for the first time. Sara honestly wasn't sure if she was excited or embarrassed about needing the special clothes but she had more important things to worry about right now, such as dragging her boyfriend down to the college to meet her mother. She was thankful she had opted to tell her mom about the baby two weeks ago before she left for Star City, because although she could still get away with wearing some of her normal clothes (granted only the ones that were always a little too big for her), it was now obvious that she's pregnant. The fact that it's heading into July and 90 degrees outside didn't help aid at all in hiding her growing stomach; instead it did the exact opposite by forcing her into wearing shorts and a form fitting tank top.

"Are you ready?" Len called, knocking on the bathroom door just as Sara was finishing her make-up.

"Yeah, one sec." She said, quickly capping her eyeliner and checking her phone only to realize that they were running late. She swung open the door and nearly crashed into Leonard, who promptly took a step back.

"Ready?" She asked and he nodded, he was already holding the car keys and despite the hot weather he was dressed in his usual jeans and jacket, although he did have a t-shirt instead of a sweater under said jacket so it's not like the weather was completely lost on him.

"Ok, I know I was a little annoyed that the baby's due so close to Christmas but now I'm kind of grateful." Sara said as she made her way around the sweltering apartment and turned off the floor fan and two window fans that they had running.

"And why is that?" Len inquired,

"Because if I was nine months pregnant in the middle of this heat, I think I would kill you." His girlfriend deadpanned before leading him out the door and they headed down the hallway.

"Need I remind you that it takes two to tango?" Leonard commented, his voice as full of sarcasm as ever.

"Need I remind you that if I die so does the baby, so killing you would have to suffice." Sara taunted with a smirk, Len just rolled his eyes and they exited the building.  
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They found Sara's mother fairly quickly among the crowd of people in the gymnasium of the college's student center, and just as Sara had predicted she was sitting at a table and looking like she would rather be anywhere else in the universe.

"Hey mom," Sara greeted with a smile as she approached and Dinah looked up, a smile suddenly lightening up her face.

"Sara, hi!" She said, standing and coming around to give her daughter a hug. As she hugged Sara she could feel the very beginnings of her baby bump pressing up against her and it only cemented the facts of the conversation that they'd had the last time they'd seen each other. "What are you doing here?" She asked as she released her daughter and for the first time noticed the man with her.

"Mom this is Leonard, Leonard this is my mother." Sara introduced them, figuring that they may as well just cut to the chase.

"How do you do?" Len asked politely as he held out a hand to Dinah, which she accepted and shook it.

"Hi Leonard, nice to meet you." She said before releasing his hand and turning to Sara. "How did things go with your father?" She asked,

"Things could've gone better," Sara admitted, "Did you know dad's getting married?" She asked, not expecting it when her mother looked guiltily at her and nodded.

"He called me the night before you left, he asked me not to tell you because he wanted to do it himself." She confessed and while Sara admittedly was a little annoyed to hear this she understood and let it go.

"Well I think we're both doing better, getting over the shocks at least." She said and Dinah smiled at the answer.

"Good," she said, "So what are you guys up to?" She asked,

"Not much, we just stopped by to say hi." Sara replied, she felt a little bad that they couldn't get her mother out of this open house but at the same time if the woman chose to work in a place where she can easily be roped into events such as this then she can deal with it.  
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"That certainly went better than it did with your father," Len remarked as he and Sara drove away from the college.

"That's usually the case," Sara admitted, "Just be grateful she's the one that we live close to." She said and Len smirked. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and noticed that she was absentmindedly rubbing her hand across the small bulge of her stomach and despite how much he wanted to he said nothing, fearing that if he pointed it out her defenses may rise and he'd never catch her like this again.

"Hey, do you mind stopping?" She asked, looking over at him with the pleading eyes that she didn't even need to get her way.

"Where do you want to stop?" He asked and she shrugged as if she hadn't thought he'd agree so readily.

"That little Mexican restaurant that does take-out?" She asked and now he knew why she thought she might need to beg. That Mexican place is all the way on the other side of town, not to mention there's construction that he hates driving through.

"Alright," He sighed and Sara's face lit up in excitement.

In truth, Leonard didn't mind going all the way through the construction on the other side of town just to get Sara a taco or whatever it was she would end up getting. She usually tried to be mindful about the situation when it came to her cravings. There were times when she would wake up in the middle of the night and tell him it was nothing, go get a glass of water, and then come back to bed. He always knew that it wasn't nothing because he would hear her going through the cabinets while she was getting the water and he was sure that eight out of ten times they probably didn't have whatever she was really looking for. She'd gone out around midnight once for some French fries, and when he offered to go get them she retaliated by saying if she wants them that badly she can go get them herself. In the end he went with her and that was the first and last time either of them went out in the middle of the night for food. He wishes sometimes that she would be more… well… annoying. He knows that this is just who she is; guarded and unused to having someone willing to take care of her. She doesn't need to be taken care of, and he knows that, but he would still like to do what he can. He's not much better than she is, if he were ever sick or anything he would never want her worrying about him. They're both terrible at accepting help, but maybe if they really try they could bring each other out of that.  
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The weeks went by uneventfully after meeting Sara's mother. They both had their jobs and aside from Sara making a doctor's appointment for her next ultrasound they didn't talk much about the baby. They were debating whether or not to learn the gender ahead of time, Sara's biggest argument against it being that their landlord won't allow them to paint the walls in the apartment so what's the point? Len, although he didn't particularly care about finding out the sex, liked to remind her that if they did choose to keep it a surprise Lisa would undoubtedly lose her mind. His sister already loved the idea of being an aunt, and she couldn't wait to find out if she was going to have a niece or a nephew so she could start buying cute little baby clothes. Sara, of course, always countered that by saying it could be fun to watch Lisa slowly unravel and probably look up a few old wives tales that women back in the 1950's thought could've been tell tale signs of a baby's gender. Len, of course, had an argument for that and told Sara that if Lisa did in fact resort to something like that then she would undoubtedly be poking her nose very deep into the blonde's business and thus cause Sara to also lose her mind. It was around that point in the argument that they actually asked each other what they wanted and neither of them ever had an answer. But with only two days left until Sara's next appointment, when they could find out the gender of the baby if they so chose, they would have to make a decision soon.

Len was thinking about this while he was working today, his friend wasn't around but it was a small job and he could handle it himself. He had just finished up and was just packing his tools up in the back of the car when an all too familiar Englishman came walking down the sidewalk.

"Didn't know you guys had shore leave coming up," He remarked when he spotted the tell tale trench coat.

"I'm not here on a holiday Mr. Snart," Rip said and Len simply shook his head while closing the trunk.

"No kidding, the Fourth of July was last week." He mocked, fully aware of the cultural differences between him and his former captain who only rolled his eyes at the comment.

"I need your help," He said,

"No can do," Len immediately shot down, "Canary and I are out of the game, at least for the next five months or so."

"I thought she was five months already?" Rip asked and Len shrugged,

"I think maybe it's a week shy of five months, gets kind of confusing when you're not starting from one. She measures it in weeks for the most part anyway. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get home." He said and so naturally Rip's response was to stand between the former crook and the driver's side door of his car.

"Please, Mr. Snart, the team needs your help." He begged but Len wouldn't even consider it.

"Don't care," he said, trying to get past Rip but to no avail. In reality he does care that the team might be in trouble, just not enough to risk his life and the future of his family when they're probably capable of finding their way out of this mess themselves.

"Stop its, its Mr. Rory." Rip admitted while still blocking Leonard's access to the door, not that he was trying very hard anymore. "While Mr. Rory was employed by the Time Masters as Chronos he made some very bad and very dangerous enemies. One of those enemies is currently here, in 2016, with intentions to destroy the entire world and the means to do it." He continued explaining now that Leonard was listening. "I've already recruited Flash, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. But we need all the help we can get to take down a threat like this." He said seriously but Len didn't say anything at first. "Mr. Snart-" Rip tried but the other man's deadly glare cut him off.

"Rule number one; Sara's not coming."

"Done," Rip replied readily, he wasn't planning on asking Sara in her condition anyway.

"Rule number two, you bring me back to the exact day that I left." Len snarled,

"You'll never leave the present." Rip said, reminding Snart that the threat is here already.

"Good, so what kind of hell did Mick get us into?" Snart demanded while crossing his arms and listening to Rip's story; all the while thinking that if this guy that they're up against doesn't kill Mick, he will.


	14. Girls Day Out

"I don't like this," Sara deadpanned early the next morning as Len got out his goggles and his gun.

"Then tell me I can't go," He replied, Sara scoffed from her position in the doorway.  
"You have to go, they need you." She said and he sighed, because she was right. This threat was very serious and if he didn't go, well, he would be resigning to do nothing as the threat of global annihilation hung over their heads. "What about Kendra and Carter?" Sara had to ask, she knew the idea might be a little selfish but she truly did not want Leonard going on this mission if someone else could take his place.

"Hunter tried, but unlike me those two apparently know how to say no." Leonard sighed, "I guess they're afraid that with Savage dead the whole reincarnation thing is over and if one of them dies they might actually stay that way." He finished as he did he could practically feel Sara rolling her eyes behind him.

Sure enough, when he turn around she was standing there looking annoyed with her arms crossed over her chest, an action that was becoming increasingly difficult for her. He walked over and stood in front of her, placing his hands on her waist before leaning over to kiss her. She reciprocated the kiss but only with minimal interest, he knew that he couldn't kiss away her worries this time but he figured that he might as well try.

"Just be careful," she instructed once he pulled away.

"Don't worry," he said but she didn't look like she felt any better. So it was with a gentle grip that he took hold of her chin and tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. "I'll be home by tonight," he promised her and she nodded.

"Watch out for my sister," she requested,

"Of course," he agreed before pulling her in for one last kiss and then pulling away. "I love you."

"I love you too," Sara murmured back and with that Len headed out, leaving Sara to hope that he would come back.  
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Snart left early in the morning, and once he was gone Sara couldn't go back to sleep despite how tired she was. So she got dressed and took to cleaning up around the apartment. Both she and Len are fairly neat people, although Len much more than her, and neither of them is one for knick-knacks of any kind. So once the dishes from their quick breakfast this morning were done, and there weren't very many of those considering the only dishes they used were two cups for coffee, she found herself in the doorway to the apartment's second bedroom; the baby's bedroom.

She looked down at her stomach and smoothed her wrinkly t-shirt over it, thinking about how they were going to need to get started on this room soon. But she didn't have much time to think on it because it was at that moment she heard the front door open. Stupidly, for a moment, she let herself believe that it was Len already back.

"Hello?" The voiced called out, breaking through Sara's fantasies because it so clearly wasn't Len's. "Sara?" It called,

"Right here," Sara called back before peeling herself off the doorway and making her way into the living room where she found Lisa closing the front door.

"You didn't break my lock this time did you?" The blonde teased her boyfriend's sister; they really need to get her a key. She usually picked the lock to get into the apartment but last time her bobby pin snapped and so she tried to get the half that was stuck in the lock out but just ended up getting the entire thing stuck and Len had to call the landlord to disassemble and reset the lock. He would've done it himself but all of his tools were inside the apartment and in the end Lisa was lucky the landlord didn't call the police on her for attempted breaking and entering.

"No," Lisa said in obvious annoyance, causing Sara to smirk. "Come one, you're not going to sit around here moping all day." She commanded and the seriousness only made Sara laugh harder.

"Who said I was moping?" She mocked but Lisa just leveled a deadpan and knowing glare at her.

"Come on," she said again.

"Where are we going?" Sara asked and Lisa shrugged.

"I don't know; we'll go to the movies or something." She suggested but her blonde friend didn't look convinced. "Come on, neither of us can sit at home all day worrying about Lenny so let's go get our minds off it." She said, she knew all about Len's mission with Hunter today and how he should be back by tonight, and she knew how she felt about it. He had called her last night to tell her, and to ask her for a favor. He made her promise that if anything were to happen to him today, she would take care of Sara and the baby. She would help Sara as much as she could, and when Sara inevitably decided to start dating again she would make sure that whomever she was with was good for her. Naturally Lisa had told her brother none of this would ever happen and he admitted that he was sure she was right, but just in case he needed the peace of mind. She had promised him readily; in fact she was honored that her brother would trust her so much. Of course she was sure that he had asked a similar promise of Sara, that if anything were to happen to him the blonde would look after his little sister.

"Ok," Sara agreed, interrupting Lisa's thoughts on last nights phone conversation with her brother.  
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After the movies the two girls decided that since it was such a hot day they would go out for ice cream. They ended up at this little shack on the very edge of Central City, far out of the actual city and even out of the more suburban areas where it's still a lot of farmland.

"Never been out here," Sara remarked after she and Lisa had ordered their frozen treats.

"It's a little out of the way, but worth it in my opinion." The brunette replied and less than two minutes later the worker returned with the girls' cones.

"Thanks," Sara said to the kid as she and Lisa took their ice cream and walked away. She had gotten a Cookies and Cream flavor while Lisa had opted for plain chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.

"So," Sara began as they found a picnic table and sat down, "What are the odds Len's already tried to kill Barry?" She asked and Lisa smirked,

"They've been gone for six hours, pretty good." The younger Snart answered and Sara laughed. "Probably tried to freeze Cisco too," Lisa continued to muse, and that gain Sara's attention.

"Cisco went too?" She asked and Lisa scoffed,

"Based on what you and Len have told me, do you really trust Rip on the monitors alone?" She asked and of course Sara had to agree with that.

"Ok, new topic." Lisa decided, still not wanting to spend the rest of her afternoon worrying about her brother and crush.

"Ok, what?" Sara challenged and Lisa thought for a moment before an excited smile that Sara did not like lit up her face.

"Your baby shower!" She decided excitedly, Sara briefly choked on her ice cream before quickly getting her bearings.

"My what?" She demanded and Lisa fixed her with a disapproving look.

"Come on Sara," she started to nag.

"Lisa," Sara whined,

"You need to have a baby shower," the other woman deadpanned.

"Why?" Sara demanded, "So we can force my mom and my sister into playing some of the worlds dumbest party games, or so you can barge into my apartment with a bunch of balloons?" She asked and, much Lisa's annoyance, she wasn't even mocking.

"First of all I'm sure you know more people other than your mom and your sister who could come," She said after chewing on the inside of her cheek for a minute or two. "Second, although I would be happy to help decorate, that's not the reason." She said,

"Then what is?" Sara demanded,

"I've seen that spare bedroom Sara, you guys have absolutely nothing in there." She reminded her friend, who did look guilty at the fact that she's halfway through her pregnancy and still hasn't bought a single item for the baby.

"That's not true," she said, quickly remembering that the room did in fact have one content.

"The broom in corner doesn't count as anything," Lisa deadpanned, resulting in Sara's face falling once again. "Sara come on, we don't have to play any stupid party games or anything like that. We'll just call up your mom and your sister, your will be stepmom and stepsister, and anyone else you want to invite. We'll just do pizza and cake or something like that, whatever you want, but you're having a baby shower." Lisa pitched her idea, although Sara stopped listening around the beginning when she mentioned Donna and Felicity.

In all this chaos and madness of the engagement and the baby and even just settling in Central City she hadn't even realized that with Donna marrying her father Felicity would become her sister. She smiled wickedly at the thought, suddenly realizing that because Felicity is two years younger than her she technically is no longer the youngest of the Lance sisters.

"So what do you think?" Lisa asked, interrupting her friend's thoughts.

"Hmm," Sara hummed in thought as she took another lick of her ice cream cone. "Alright," she finally agreed, resulting in Lisa squealing with happiness and clapping her hands together excitedly. "But no party games," She quickly reminded.

"Done," Lisa agreed, still as excited as ever.

With that more or less decided the two girls finished their ice creams before climbing back into the car. Sara was driving and they had gotten about halfway back to the city, Lisa talking about something Cisco had said nearly the entire way, when she stopped paying attention to the story. Something felt off suddenly; she felt this strange and nearly undetectable pulse like sensation in her stomach. At first she thought it might be nothing, but five minutes later it came back and didn't go away. She then assumed it simply was her pulse, since one of the human body's pulse points is located near the abdomen and she had been able to feel that very point throbbing in the past. But typically she had only ever done so during meditation, and she hadn't felt it at all since she got pregnant. Not to mention that this feeling didn't seem to be following any sort of pattern the way a pulse would. She tried to tell herself that the reason for that was that she probably wasn't picking up half the beats and so it only seemed random but that lie wasn't very convincing.

"Ok this is going to be a really weird question but do you ever feel like you're having, I don't know, a mini muscle spasm in your stomach?" She finally asked Lisa; interrupting whatever story she was telling but not particularly caring.

"No," Lisa replied, suddenly more than a little worried. "Are you ok?" She asked,

"I don't know," Sara answered honestly, "I think so but it feels like I can feel my pulse in my stomach, only it doesn't feel steady like a pulse. I don't know I'm sure I'm fine," She replied and she hoped she was fine because she did not want to go to the doctor's.

"Do you think it's the baby?" Lisa asked after a long and somewhat heavy silence.

"No, you can't feel a baby's heartbeat." Sara replied,

"Not that, do you think it's kicking?" Lisa clarified and at first Sara didn't respond.

She thought about the notion, she had never felt her baby kick before but according to the doctor it was due to start any day now. She had been told that the feeling of a baby kicking could be compared to having butterflies in your stomach. This, to Sara, didn't exactly feel like butterflies but then again she could understand why some people would make that comparison. She focused all the attention on it that she could while driving; it felt random and not at all painful like she thought it might, but it was definitely there.

"I think so," she finally answered Lisa, wide and excited smiles breaking out across both their faces.  
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She dropped Lisa off at home and then preceded to go back to her own apartment, her spirits considerably lifted since this morning. She began thinking about the baby shower Lisa had decided they were having at some point. There was a chance having her mother and stepmother in the same apartment for an entire afternoon could end badly but she chose to believe that it wouldn't be so awful. Her mother is typically a very understanding person and Donna doesn't seem like the type to start drama for no reason, so hopefully things would be fine. She decided that in order to keep her mind off of Leonard and the mission he was currently on she would spend the night sitting in bed and looking online for things that they were going to need for the baby. She wasn't going to pick anything out without Len's approval, though she suspected he probably wouldn't care if she decided on a few things singlehandedly, but it couldn't hurt to make a short list of some ideas.

A part of her wondered if maybe she didn't want to make any definite decisions tonight, no matter how small, because telling herself that she would wait for Leonard meant that he would come home. As she looked online through the different cribs and changing tables she realized that while most options for those could work for either a boy or a girl, there were other nursery items such as bedding and mobile's that were typically geared towards either one gender or the other. Of course there were still some that could work neutrally, but all the same it made Sara realize that she and Len need to decide whether or not they're going to learn the gender before Lisa starts writing up baby shower invitations.

In that moment Sara was pulled from her thoughts by the same sensation she had felt in her stomach earlier, the one she and Lisa had determined was the baby kicking. With an amused and admittedly happy smile Sara ran a hand over her enlarged belly, smiling even brighter when one of the kicks landed below the area of her hand. She couldn't really feel it against her hand, not firmly anyway, but she could feel the sensation that really felt like a twitching muscle right below the surface as if the baby had been aiming for her hand. She stayed like that for a little while, her previous task of scanning through the Internet all but forgotten as she sat up in bed just caressing a gentle hand over her stomach in wonder until the kicking inside died down and eventually stopped.

"At least one of us can manage to fall asleep," Sara remarked after it had been quite a few minutes since her baby last kicked her. "I'm going to stay up and wait for daddy," she said, not entirely sure if she believed that her baby could actually hear her. Nevertheless she picked her iPad back up and began scrolling again, occasionally bookmarking a few things down to show to Len later.

She thought it wouldn't be until he very early hours of the morning that Len returned, but it was only a few minutes after midnight. She didn't even hear the front door of the apartment opening and closing, but she did notice when her boyfriend came to stand in the doorway of their bedroom. She'd seen him after tough missions plenty of times, but right now the only time he had looked worse was after he had supposedly killed Mick. He was still wearing his parka, his goggles strung loosely around his neck and his cold gun even looser as it dangled by his side curiosity of his index finger and thumb hooked through the loop of the trigger. He looked like he'd been crying, and the sight of this immediately snapped Sara to attention.

"What happened?" She demanded seriously, her words broke him.

He dropped his gun and all but ran to the bed, crawling into his place beside her and wrapping her in his arm as she did the same to him. He laid his head on her chest and began to let the tears fall free, leaving Sara utterly scared and confused. She had the common sense not to press him for any information; instead she took to rubbing his back with one hand while pressing a kiss to the top of his head. She used her other hand to rub small and comforting circles on his temple with her thumb. They stayed like this for a solid ten minutes or so before Leonard's breath finally evened out and he was as close to calm as he was going to get for the night. He could feel the tenseness in Sara's body as she comforted him, she still wanted to know what had done this to him and he knew that she had the right. So he took a few deep breaths before sitting up and giving her a kiss on the cheek as he did so, and then he began his tale.


	15. The War World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I partially based this chapter on the Young Justice episode "War"

"I don't like this," Sara deadpanned early that morning as Len got out his goggles and his gun.

"Then tell me I can't go," He replied, Sara scoffed from her position in the doorway.

"You have to go, they need you." She said and he sighed, because she was right. This threat was very serious and if he didn't go, well, he would be resigning to do nothing as the threat of global annihilation hung over their heads. "What about Kendra and Carter?" Sara had to ask, and Len didn't want to answer because he had already asked Hunter and when he got the answer he had wanted to go find the two Meta bird-human hybrids or whatever the heck they are and knock some sense into them.

"Hunter tried, but unlike me those two apparently know how to say no." Leonard sighed, trying to keep the annoyed bite in his voice to a minimum. "I guess they're afraid that with Savage dead the whole reincarnation thing is over and if one of them dies they might actually stay that way." He finished, as he did he could practically feel Sara rolling her eyes behind him. Which made him smirk because at least now he knew she agreed with him.

Sure enough, when he turned around she was standing there looking annoyed with her arms crossed over her chest, an action that was becoming increasingly difficult for her. He walked over and stood in front of her, placing his hands on her waist before leaning over to kiss her. She reciprocated the kiss but only with minimal interest, he knew that he couldn't kiss away her worries this time but he figured that he might as well try.

"Just be careful," she instructed once he pulled away.

"Don't worry," he said but she didn't look like she felt any better. So it was with a gentle grip that he took hold of her chin and tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. "I'll be home by tonight," he promised her and she nodded.

"Watch out for my sister," she requested,

"Of course," he agreed before pulling her in for one last kiss and then pulling away. "I love you."

"I love you too," Sara murmured back and with that Len headed out, hoping that he's right and tonight he would come heading back in.  
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"Oh, what are you doing here?" Leonard groaned when he reached the vacant lot that housed the Waverider and stepped on board, only to walk into the bridge and find Cisco Ramon geeking out over all the future tech.

"Mr. Allen thought that we could use an extra set of eyes monitoring everything." Rip explained, just as Raymond walked in already dressed in full A.T.O.M. suit and a huge smile illuminating his face.

"Snart! Good to see you!" He exclaimed, making his way to give the other man a handshake and for whatever reason Snart complied.

Also on the bridge and dressed ready for battle were Oliver, Laurel, Barry, and some other guy in a hood.

"I don't believe we've met, Leonard Snart." Len introduced himself to the mysterious man and approached him, mimicking Raymond's actions from two minutes ago and shaking his hand.

"Rex Tyler," The other man replied, before Len could've asked any questions on who he was or where the team found him the missing three members came in from the corridor.

"Hey Snart," Jax greeted as Mick went and clasped his old friend on the shoulder.

"It's good to see you," Stein chimed in,

Len just nodded, he wasn't very good at greetings.

"How's Sara doing?" Jax asked,

"Well she's not too thrilled with me being back here, but other than that she's fine." He answered and Jax nodded.

"Alright now that we've all had a chance to catch up let's strap in and go," Rip announced so most of the team took their places, all except for Len.

"I thought you said no time jumping?" He asked,

"I did, but I never said we were staying on the planet." He replied and although Len frowned he still took a seat, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into.

When the Waverider landed, or at least stopped moving, Len noticed that they were in outer space.

"Ok, what are we doing here?" He asked as they all disengaged from their seats and began gathering around the main computer console.

"As I explained to you yesterday Mr. Snart, we are here to stop an alien criminal known as Mongul from using the super weapon known as the War World to destroy the earth." Rip said,

"I know that, but what are we doing in outer space?" The former criminal specified and so Rip pointed out the front window at what, up until this point, everyone had assumed was the backside of the moon.

"That is the War World," he announced, leaving everyone in a stunned silence.

"Um… that, that's more than one weapon I'm guessing." Ray finally spluttered out and Rip only nodded in confirmation.

"Why do you think I recruited some extra help?" He asked rhetorically, not that Len could see how he was going to be very helpful against at giant mass of pure weaponry contained in a ship the size of the moon.

"The War World is an ancient yet devastatingly advanced planetary weapon, it was created by a civilization of barbaric aliens until they all died out. After that the key to it was hidden away by a much more peaceful society but unfortunately it was stolen by Mongul roughly two hundred years ago, he's a conqueror of worlds and when I say conqueror I mean destroyer." Rip quickly explained, the entire thing sounded like something out of a comic book in Len's opinion but yet somehow it's his reality.

"Now according to Gideon the War World is locked on to attack earth in exactly twelve hours, meaning we have eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes to stop it." He continued,

"So what's the plan?" Snart demanded, getting real bored of this stalling real quick.

"The plan, Mr. Snart, is for Dr. Palmer to shrink down when the patrol drones go out and land on one of them undetected. Once the drones go back in he'll be inside the War World and can disable the external security, once that's done we'll have roughly one minute to sneak in through a secret hatch on the side of the structure before Mongul can reactivate the security." Rip explained, however no one on his crew look entirely convinced of that plan.

"What about guards?" Len finally asked,

"No guards," Rip replied, "Lots of weapons, but no guards. Mongul is the only living being on the War World. He controls it from the control chair; it uses a neurological transmitter to allow the pilot to psychically control the entire ship." He explained,

"So Mongul can do anything he wants and no one's around to question him?" Ray asked and Rip nodded.

"There are three ways to shut down the War World; take out Mongul, take out the power core, or take out the key which activates it. The problem is that if we fail in the attempt at one we won't even stand a chance with the other two." He began explaining.

"So we don't fail," Barry interrupted as if it were that easy.

"Hopefully not, but all the same we can't afford to throw plans B and C out the window. Not to mention that Mongul is only one person and so can only focus on so many things at once." Rip continued,

"We're going to try them all at once," Ray said, putting together what Rip was implying and sure enough the Captain nodded.

"You'll be split up into three teams of three," he announced. "Dr. Palmer, Miss Lance, and Mr. Tyler will head to the power core and shut it down. Mr. Queen, Professor Stein, and Mr. Jackson will go and retrieve the key, and Mr. Rory, Mr. Snart, and Mr. Allen will head to the main deck after Mongul." He explained and Len couldn't help but roll his eyes at being paired with Barry, he was starting to think Rip had recruited him today just to torture him.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to send the thieves to steal the key?" Mick asked,

"Ordinarily yes," Rip replied, "But the key is kept inside of the nuclear force field, which only Firestorm can disable and make it out alive." He explained and when he realized there were no more questions he went on. "We have fifteen minutes until the drones come out." He declared and the group took that as their cue to set about their normal business. Stein, Cisco, and Ray started looking over Gideon's schematic's of the War World's internal structure, and while Leonard knew that he should do the same he instead found himself hanging in the back corner of the room alone. He wasn't alone for long however, Mick was quick to join him.

"How long's it been?" The hothead asked his supposedly cold-hearted former partner. "I tried to keep track but that ain't easy when you're traveling through time." He explained and Snart smirked at the notion, the subtle hint that his friend really does care.

"Five months, give or take a couple of days." He said and Mick grunted in response.

"She getting big?" He asked and at first Len just raised an eyebrow at him and his unintentionally insensitive question, thinking that something like that is none of Mick's damn business, but in the end he decided to just answer the question.

"Yeah, she's getting there." He said before cocking his head in the direction over to where Rex Tyler was talking to Rip.

"Whose the new guy?" He asked, sure he knew the man's name but he didn't know anything about him.

"Rex Tyler; says he's from the future and we're all going to die on this mission." Mick's low and graveling voice replied.

"Do you believe him?" Snart asked but Mick only shrugged.

"I knew what I was signing on for when I got back on this ship, how could I not with him on my heels and nagging in my ear?" He replied and although he tried not to show it, the idea made Len a little nervous. But he didn't have much time to dwell on it, because their fifteen minutes were up.  
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"Alright, with the external sensors temporarily disabled Mongul undoubtedly knows you're inside so-" Rip's voice in the comms was cut off by sudden and rapid laser fire coming from thousands of little blasters that had appeared on the walls, causing each member of the team to jump around as if the floor were on fire.

Finally, a loud and nearly deafening wail began resonating throughout the corridor until the blasters all shorted out and it stopped, letting anyone who didn't already know that it had originated from Laurel.

"Way to go Siren," Mick growled as he stalked towards Sara's sister, unaware that the nickname he'd just given her had briefly worried Barry. "You just broke our comms," He all but snarled,

"Um, no she didn't." Cisco's voice suddenly rang in all their ears, "I adjusted your comms this morning so they would be able to withstand the Canary Cry." He explained and so Mick, never being one to say sorry, continued to glare at Laurel with a warning look until he finally turned away to join his team for the day.

"Let's get going," He growled, beginning to head down the corridor that would ultimately lead to Mongul. The rest of the team looked around at each other, but decided to take Mick's cue and split their separate ways.

They hadn't been walking for even five minutes yet and already Len was contemplating why he had agreed to come. They weren't being attacked, yet, but he was stuck with Mick and Barry Allen as his partners for the assignment. Mick he could handle, they'd been partners for years, but Allen is a whole other story. Presently the three of them were walking in a thick and awkward silence until Barry, big surprise there, finally broke it.

"Why do you think more lasers haven't come out yet?" He asked and so Len glared at him, clearly making him nervous. "I'm just saying, what if the others are being attacked?" He asked,

"They're not," Mick growled in response, "Even if they are, they can handle it. But Mongul knows we're here, so he's not going to waste his ammo slowing us down. Instead he's going to wait until somebody get's close to their target, and then he'll unleash Armageddon on all of us." He theorized and briefly both Barry and Len were a little disturbed by the utter calmness Mick spoke with, as though this were the most casual conversation to have. "Let's keep moving," the arsonist encouraged, only adding to the morbid vibes he was giving off.

"Is he ok?" Barry finally asked once Mick had put a little distance between himself and his teammates, letting the two of them trail behind him.

"He's Mick, he hasn't been ok in a long time." Len answered, not really sure why he was indulging this conversation.

"What about you?" Barry inquired,

"What about me?" Len venomously asked, not that the harsh tone deterred Barry in the least.

"I don't know, I see Sara every day but I hardly see you." He shrugged,

"That's because Sara is a hero. I however, am not." He said,

"You're not a villain," Barry instead and Len just sighed, because the kid had him there. "Look Snart, I get that the whole hero thing isn't exactly your comfort zone, but you'll always have a place for you at S.T.A.R. Labs." He continued and Len so badly wanted to tell him stop talking like a sap, but Mick never gave him the chance.

"Cut the sappy talk girl scouts, we're here." He growled lowly, so he in a way said it for Len, but that's beside the point.

Less than twenty feet ahead of them the corridor transitioned into a large and mostly open room that looked like it was made entirely of glass with neon orange lines traveling in every direction as the controls of the War World, and at the helm was a large chair facing away from the three.

"Ah, someone here to stop me." A threatening and yet calm voice said as the chair pivoted around to reveal its captain.

Mongul was taller than any human and visibly stronger than most, his skin was yellow, cracked, and so rough it almost looked like it was made of rock. His eyes were a deep red color and he wore a simple purple suit with a silver headband that the three intruders just knew had to be the key to controlling the ship.

"Based on what I know about Earth, I doubt that you'll succeed." He said and Len snarled as he pulled his goggles into place,

"Let's find out." He said and with that he and Mick charged in, guns blazing, but not even a direct hit from either gun did anything to even faze Mongul.

While the two thief's opened fire on their enemy Barry saw that it wasn't working and so went speeding up to catch Mongul off guard, only for the enormous alien to catch him by the fabric of his suit.

"Hm, I didn't know earthlings possessed any interesting abilities, I suppose it would be a shame for me to kill you." He mused, holding Barry up by his chest.

"Does that mean you're not going to?" The scarlet speedster asked and Mongul chuckled darkly.

"I'm not that impressed," he mocked before harshly and forcefully throwing Barry into Len, sending them both flying back. "I've seen powers such as yours many times before," he continued as he stalked towards the tangled pile of limbs that was Barry and Leonard. "Sooner or later, they all fall." He announced, raising his fists for a devastating blow, before a familiar wail rang out from behind and caused him to grip the sides of his head and double over in pain.

Not wasting any time once Laurel was done, Barry sprung to his feet and began running circles around Mongul to suck away his oxygen. It didn't work of course, and the captain of the War World swatted him away like a fly.

"Nice try," He mocked as he rose to his feat, and as he did Oliver's voice came over the comms.

"We can't get through the force field around the key, either the power core or Mongul needs to be taken out!" He shouted into their ears.

"The power core has a failsafe similar to the Oculus, someone would need to stay!" Ray announced over the link.  
"And considering Ray had to shrink in order to reach the core, I don't think Len could just freeze his hand there." Laurel put in, she had heard all about the Oculus from Sara while she was recovering from the prison riot.

"Then we blow this ship," Mick said darkly and before anyone could stop or even question him he fired his gun at Mongul's head.

The fire from the weapon clashed against the headband that controls the ship, heating it to the point where Mongul had no choice but to rip it off. Mick grabbed it without hesitation, trying and nearly failing to ignore the searing pain that wearing it caused. He then all but dove into the captain's chair and before Mongul could stop him Mick used the power now at his disposal to electrocute the alien into unconsciousness.

"Now what?" Barry asked, looking down at their unconscious enemy, "We can't leave a ship like this for someone to find." He exclaimed,

"I know," Mick growled before looking over his shoulder at the group. "Get back to the ship!" He ordered,

"What?" Rex asked,

"I said get back to the Waverider," Mick repeated, everyone knew his plan, but none wanted to admit it.

"What's going on?" Jax's voice demanded over the comms but he went ignored by the others.

"Rip, PLEASE tell me there's another way." Len all but begged, he could NOT lose his best friend, not again.

There was an agonizingly long beat of silence over the link, neither Rip nor Cisco said anything, and then…

"I'm sorry Mr. Snart, at this point there is no other way." The captain confirmed and just as he did Mongul started to stir; they didn't have a lot of time.

"Go," Mick ordered firmly and this time, finally, the others listened; all except for Snart.

"Mick," he started to say, his eyes already misting over when his friend locked with them. He wanted so badly to pull Mick out of that chair, to take his place, but he couldn't. He can't leave Sara, and he especially can't leave their child. But he also can't go on without Mick, he may be the brain of their operation and the one who keeps the hothead in check but honestly he doesn't know how to survive without the man who may as well be his brother.

"Tell your kid that Uncle Mick went out a hero," he requested and despite not wanting to Snart nodded, and then he hightailed it out of there.  
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Back on the ship it was mostly quiet, solemn. Tyler was muttering something about the timeline to himself, something about a chain of events being set into motion; Len didn't really pay attention. Ray looked the most broken up out of all of them, save for Leonard himself, and he kept saying that it should've been him. Rip dropped Len and Barry off in Central City, and after Barry awkwardly excused himself to go home Len contemplated going out for a drink and drowning his misery. But he knew Sara would be waiting up for him, and given her current situation it isn't like he can bring her along with him to toast to their friend and then start a bar fight. Besides, something about going home to her after a day like today was somehow more appealing than sitting alone in a bar getting wasted. So he walked the dark streets of Central City all the way back to his apartment and made his way inside, being careful to go in quietly in case Sara was sleeping. He toed his boots off by the door and headed for the bedroom, stopping once he reached the doorway.

Sara was sitting up in bed, the little lap by her bedside turned on to give her more light as she scrolled through something on the iPad. She looked up when he entered, and based on the sudden look of worry that overtook her face he figured that he must look like hell.

"What happened," She demanded seriously, her words broke him.

He dropped his gun and all but ran to the bed, crawling into his place beside her and wrapping her in his arm as she did the same to him. He laid his head on her chest and began to let the tears fall free, leaving Sara utterly scared and confused. He was thankful when she didn't press him for any information; instead she took to rubbing his back with one hand while pressing a kiss to the top of his head. She used her other hand to rub small and comforting circles on his temple with her thumb. They stayed like this for a solid ten minutes or so before Leonard's breath finally evened out and he was as close to calm as he was going to get for the night. He could feel the tenseness in Sara's body as she comforted him, she still wanted to know what had done this to him and he knew that she had the right. So he took a few deep breaths before sitting up and giving her a kiss on the cheek as he did so, and then he began his tale.

"I'm sorry," she said once he was done, there were tears in her own eye by now. "Isn't there any way to get him back?" She asked but Len sighed and didn't move from the position against her that he had taken upon first crawling into bed.

"Only if we want the world to die, or Raymond in his place." He admitted and Sara said nothing, instead she just bent her head down and kissed him on the head.

He still had his head on her chest and one arm draped lightly over her stomach, his fingers now drawing little circle on it.

"Uncle Mick died a hero kid," He said before pressing a gentle kiss to the bump, maybe if this were any other situation he would've felt stupid for talking to the baby through Sara's belly as if it could hear him, despite that some people say that it probably could. Maybe if this were any other situation Sara would've smiled and teased him. Maybe if this were any other situation, but it wasn't.

"It started kicking today," Sara muttered after a quiet minute, this prompted Len to look up at her and then turn back to the invisible patterns he was drawing.

"Figures, the one day I go off to outer space." He mused ad he felt Sara raise her eyebrow at him, which got him to laugh. It wasn't much, but it was just a little bit of normal, and they both needed it after tonight.

"Rip's doing a memorial for Mick tomorrow, we're going to have to bury an empty casket though." The news sent a twinge of pain through Sara's heart, and she knew it did the same to Len's.

"I have an appointment tomorrow-"

"Don't cancel," He insisted, already knowing what she was about to suggest. "Better to-"

"Len," it was her who cut him off this time. "Mick was my friend too, and I'm sorry but I don't think I can rush from a doctors appointment to his funeral." She told him and so he nodded, then it was quiet again. "I know we haven't talked about names yet, but if it's a boy, we could name it after Mick." She suggested and Len sighed.

"Mick wasn't a guy who would've wanted his name to be carried on, but middle name I think would get by… I don't know, pick this up later?" He asked, he was still processing everything that had happened and as sweet as Sara's idea was he didn't want to think about naming his child in honor of Mick yet, it made his death feel too real too soon.

Sara nodded in understanding of his request, right now wasn't time for this conversation, right now was the time to go to sleep and hope that when morning came Len's entire mission could've been nothing but a dream.


	16. The Life of Mick Rory

When morning came the air in the Snart/Lance apartment was just as heavy as it had been the night before, if not more so. Leonard woke up first, although to be fair he hadn't done much sleeping. He lay there with Sara for a few minutes, watching her sleep and slightly envying how peaceful she looked. But he soon grew restless and so he got up and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Leonard isn't the best cook, but then again he isn't the worst cook either. Now with that being said today probably wasn't one of his better days cooking wise, or in general for that matter. After he ruined two pancakes (burned one and dropped the other) he decided just to make some coffee and set out two bowls and a box of cereal. Just as he finished with this Sara came out and so the two ate in silence before she excused herself to go call her doctor and cancel her appointment for later today.

Once she was gone, Snart remained in his seat at the counter, mindlessly swishing the coffee that remained in his mug around in small circles; thinking about some old times.  
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FLASHBACK

"It's called coffee kid," Mick snapped, handing Leonard the hot paper cup. Mick had been released from Juvie just a week shy of his eighteenth birthday and was yet to go to real prison, but then again it had only been a little over a month. Leonard had just been released today and so rather than make the kid walk home for three hours on the side of the freeway Mick just went and got him, in a stolen truck of course.

"I know what it is," The kid snapped

"Then what's the problem? Sixteen years on this earth and you've never had coffee?" Mick asked but he wasn't really expecting the embarrassed look on the kid's face at the question. "You're kidding," he stated in disbelief, "I've seen you completely wasted, but you've never had coffee?" He demanded and Leonard shrugged.

"Never came up," he excused before taking a long sip of the hot beverage his friend had given him, before promptly spitting it out at the unpleasantly bitter taste. "This stuff is awful!" He grimaced,

"That's what you said about the whiskey at first," Mick reminded him, "You've just got to get used to it." He said and although it made him gag again Len did in fact take another sip of the black coffee.

END FLASHBACK  
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Len smirked to himself at the memory, still moving what was left of his black coffee around in circles inside the mug. Mick had been wrong about getting used to it, to this day Leonard still hates black coffee. He needs to put a little bit of milk in it, something to curb the bitter taste just a little. But that being said there are some days like today where he would rather just suck it up and drink the coffee black. So that's what he did and then he went to get ready for the funeral.  
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FLASHBACK

"Out of all the stupid things you could've done, you answered your phone." Mick reprimanded Ray while the two of them were sitting in their holding cell at the CCPD. Ray had just been led into the cell following his phone call with Sara and had informed Mick that she and Leonard were already on their way to get them.

"Well I mean, at least I didn't run a red light." He joked but Mick wasn't amused.

"So why were you in that car anyway?" The hothead finally asked,

"Because the mission isn't over," Ray said,

"Hunter was pretty clear," Mick pointed out but Ray wouldn't hear of it.

"Rip can't defeat Savage without us, and besides we have to find Kendra. We need to get him back here," he proposed and Mick did seem to think on it for a minute before turning to the tech genius.

"How would we do that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, Ray smiled in victory at getting him signed on.

"I might have something that will do the trick,"

END FLASHBACK  
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Ray shook the memory away as he stood in his room of the Waverider, getting ready for the memorial. It was that along with the memories of Russia and the Oculus that were haunting him right now, reminding his that it should've been him. He was supposed to have died a long time ago on this mission, that's a fact that isn't lost on him. Mick got him out of Russia, and maybe that was just because he felt like he owed him. But he didn't have to take his place at the Oculus, or the War World. He should've shut down the power core, so what if it would've killed him? But instead he opted to listen to Rex and his warnings that in his timeline he did in fact die taking out the power core of the War World, and as a result a chain of events was set off that resulted in the deaths of Laurel, followed by Oliver, Firestorm, and other heroes who weren't familiar to Ray. Initially he thought Rex might be crazy, how could his death have such deep effects on people whom he doesn't even know? Regardless, Mick Rory was not on that list of people who were supposed to die. But with so many lives on the line Ray had listened to the man from the future about finding another way to destroy the War World, and now he was regretting it.  
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To say that Rex felt any less guilty about changing the future so drastically would've been a bull faced lie, and to say he hadn't known this would happen would be the same.

FLASHBACK

"You're out of your mind," he accused Mick Rory, AKA Heat Wave, when he came to him and asked him to go to the past and stop any of this madness before it starts.

"True, but I'm still right." The pyromaniac insisted, folding his arms across his chest and staring the other man down.

"Except for you expect the original team to head a warning of death," Rex scoffed,

"That's plan A," Mick clarified, acknowledging that the chances the original team would get it through their thick skulls that they should get as far away from the Waverider while they still could were very, very low. "Plan B is to stop Raymond from blowing up the War World," He declared and Rex simply scoffed again.

"And let Mongul destroy the Earth?" He questioned but when Mick began walking closer to him with that trademark growl of his Rex knew that he needed to stop pointing out every flaw he found in this plan, because Mick had already thought of them.

"I said stop Raymond from blowing it up, there's one other way to blow it up and get everyone out." He said and Rex knew what he was talking about, it's not like this was the first time they've had this conversation after all.

"It won't work, you'll die." He insisted but Mick shook his head.

"I've survived two rounds of conditioning by the Time Masters, the shock from that chair is nothing but a tickle." He insisted, "As for the explosion…" he trailed off as he handed Rex a silver, bracelet looking device. "Let's hope the chess club knows what they're doing."

END FLASHBACK

Rex sighed as he finished getting dressed and pulled himself out of the memory. So far Mick's plan seemed to have only half worked, and all he could do was pray that the other half was coming.  
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When Lisa got to S.T.A.R. Labs that morning she was thrilled to see her brother, running up and throwing her arms around his neck in relief that he was alive

But something was off.

He was stiffer than she had expected of him, like he was just going through the motions of hugging her. When she pulled away she noticed that his face did indeed look very haunted, like things weren't as good as they seemed.

"Lenny, what's wrong?" She asked but instead of answering her he turned around to Cisco and Barry, who Lisa now noticed were looking just as troubled.

"You didn't tell her?" He asked them and Barry shook his head,

"We figured you would want to," Cisco replied and Len nodded gratefully before turning back to his sister, who looked utterly scared and confused.

"Tell me what? What's going on?" She asked, a desperate smile overtaking her face because she could feel the tension sitting heavily in the room and she so badly wanted to laugh.

She wanted this, whatever this was, to all be a dream. She wanted today to be what it was supposed to be, her showing up to and trailing behind Cisco like a shadow as they all waited for Sara to come in after her appointment and tell them whether the baby is going to be a boy or a girl. She wanted to collect her winnings from Cisco because he is convinced that the baby is going to be a girl, so naturally she bet on boy just for the sake of making the bet. She didn't know what was happening, but she knew that she didn't like it.

"Something happened yesterday Lisa," Len finally said, his face grave like it had been when their grandfather passed away.

"You're scaring me Lenny," she told him, "What happened? Are you ok? Is Sara ok? The baby?" She was starting to panic now, she had heard all about Sara's miscarriage scare in the beginning of her pregnancy and now she was wondering if she had been wrong about the baby kicking. What if it was something else? Something bad?

"We're fine Lisa," Len confirmed before her thoughts could continue down that dark rode. "Sara's fine and so is the baby, and so am I." He added but he still looked like he was barely holding himself together.

"Then I don't understand, what's wrong?" She asked and her brother sighed, mentally telling himself that it was now or never.

"We went on the mission yesterday, but Mick didn't make it home." He spit it out and Lisa's response was to cover her gaping mouth with one hand.  
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FLASHBACK

If Lenny were here he probably would've killed Mick. But instead he's out on a job with their father and so he brought Lisa to his and Mick's hideout so that his best friend could watch her. She was ok with that arrangement, excited even. She'd take staying in Lenny and Mick's hideout over staying in her own house where her father would inevitably return any day; well maybe not any day.

Mick had decided to watch a movie after she went to bed, but naturally she couldn't sleep and had insisted on watching with him. She didn't catch the name of it, but it involved a Werewolf and more than few dead bodies. Mick didn't seem to care much for it, having fallen asleep on the couch halfway through, but it was petrifying to Lisa's eight-year-old mind. Once the movie ended she had scampered off the couch and went and tucked herself back into her sleeping bag, and she had been lying there in a fearfully cold sweat ever since.

Finally Lisa just couldn't take it anymore, her father may punish her harshly for bothering him with her nightmares but Lenny is always so nice about it; so with the score for understanding adults in her life tied at one and one she took her chances and hoped that Mick would break the tie the way she wanted him to. She crawled out of her sleeping bag and tiptoed over to the couch, admittedly still not entirely sure if this was a good idea out not. But regardless her nightmares were not going away and so she reached up and began shaking Mick's limp arm.

"Mick, Mick." She whispered and after a few minutes of that he grunted awake.

"What is it kid?" He asked groggily, barely awake enough to notice that Lisa suddenly looked very guilty and very unsure of herself.

"Um… uh... I uh…"

"Spit it out squirt," Mick interrupted her, not that there was much to interrupt.

"Are, are Werewolves real?" She finally asked and it was written all over his face that Mick had no idea what to make of that question or the complete seriousness of it.

"No," he answered simply, putting his head back down to go back to sleep but Lisa didn't move from her spot.

"Are you sure?" She asked,

"Yes," He answered, not even opening his eyes this time.

"But how do you know?" She questioned and this time Mick looked t her again with a sigh.

"Because I've never seen a Werewolf," he told her but she looked far from convinced.

"Well I've never seen an alligator but those are real," she countered and he actually huffed out a laugh at that, if he ever needed proof that she's Snart's sister the unique brand of sarcasm that they share should suffice.

"Fair point kid," he said,

"So does that mean they are real?" She nearly cried and if he weren't using his elbow to prop himself up Mick would've face palmed.

"Look kid, Werewolves aren't real. Neither are vampires, ghosts, zombies, or any other monsters like that. Capiche?" He asked her and she nodded,

"Mick?" She asked again before he could even think about going back to sleep.

"Yeah kid?" He asked only for her to begin twiddling her thumbs nervously,

"Can I… can I sleep with you?" She asked and so with a sigh Mick nodded, smirking a little as Lisa's face lit up like she was the happiest kid in the world and she clamored her way onto the couch.

It was a small couch, not exactly big enough for the two of them, but Lisa solved that problem quickly by lying herself down on top of her babysitter. Mick groaned at first in response to the new weight on his chest and stomach, she really was getting too big to lie on him like this. But nevertheless he adjusted himself to deal with it and although he didn't sleep at all that night Lisa slept soundly.

END FLASHBACK  
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The Snart siblings were raised not to show love and that such a thing is a weakness, despite knowing better it's etched into their souls. But that didn't stop Leonard from grabbing his sister in a hug after telling her about Mick. He told her how it happened, about the funeral later, and how he died a hero.  
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The funeral for Mick Rory was not unlike the one the team had held at the beginning of their journey for Carter and Aldus. They found a quiet place to bury the empty casket they had instructed Gideon to fabricate for the ceremony. They contemplated placing the heat gun inside but they ultimately decided to store it away in the weapons room of the Waverider, it just felt wrong to bury the gun as if it were a substitute for it's owner. Len thought that he was going to be sick carrying the casket, and certainly wasn't due to the combination of the stiff suit and late afternoon heat. But he held it together until the last pile of dirt was dropped over the casket and Rip asked if anyone would like to speak. Just about everyone turned to Leonard but he shook his head, he knew he couldn't give speech without choking up.

"Right then, I'll say something." Rip quickly continued and so when all eyes shifted to him he looked to the hollow grave. "When I set out on this mission my plans never included Mr. Rory." He confessed, "I needed the help of a thief who could think his way out of any predicament, and Mr. Snart fit the bill better than anyone else I could find. But there was a catch; Mr. Snart lived by a code to never leave anyone behind, especially his partner. So I recruited Mr. Rory as well," Len was eyeing Rip curiously by now; he hadn't known any of this. "I told this to Mick once, when we were being held hostage by time pirates. I then proceeded to insult him, saying that he had the IQ of meat." He confessed, everyone except for Jax looked both shocked and angry, and Jax just looked angry. "I pushed him into betrayal and into life as Chronos, a life that was undoubtedly filled with pain. But in the end, when he died, he died fighting under my command. I underestimated him greatly, and he was twice the man that I will ever be." He concluded,

"Well I could've told you that," A teasing and gravelly voice came from behind the group. All at once the entire group turned to see, of all people, Mick making his way through the trees.  
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FLASHBACK

"So let me get this straight?" Mick asked after Rex had shown up at his door and proceeded to tell him everything that was supposed to happen tomorrow, something quite unusual for a man who is normally more worried about the timeline than even Rip. "Haircut is going to die tomorrow, he's going to take Laurel with him. Queen will be in a tough spot a few weeks later and because he doesn't have her to bail him out he'll die, and it just spirals from there. So to stop it, you want me to die?" He asked and Rex started frantically shaking his hands and head in a no-like gesture.

"No, FAKE your death." He clarified,

"How?" Mick asked only for his newest teammate to hold out what looked like a bracelet.

"This is Felicity, Curtis, and Cisco's experimental teleporter. It can't shrink with Ray, which is why I can't give it to him. Activate it just as the War World blows up and it will lock onto Curtis's signal in 2020. From there it's just a matter of location where the Waverider lands so they can send you back." He explained and Mick thought he understood the plan, actually scratch that, he knew he understood. But the word experimental was still weighing on his mind.

"What are the chances this will work?" He asked and that is where Rex's mood seemed to deflate.

"About 50%," he admitted, "I told you you were out of your mind before you sent me back in time." He said as though he was trying to talk the arsonist out of the mission all over again, and maybe he was. Either way it didn't work; Mick got up and crossed over to him so that he could snatch the bracelet.

"I may be out of my mind, but I trust my own judgment."

END FLASHBACK  
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To say that the group was speechless, even after Mick explained that he had teleported to 2020 at the last possible second and just now been dropped off by Rip's future self, would've been an understatement. Len was the first to break the silence, however, when he walked over to his old partner and looked him dead in the eye.

"I have half a mind to kill you myself right now and put you in that grave," he said before clasping the other man on the shoulder. "Don't ever do that again," he ordered and Mick smirked, making no promises.  
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"Well, today was quite the day." Sara muttered when she and Len finally made it home. After discovering Mick was actually alive, and realizing they had gathered all three teams for no good reason, the group had decided to all go back to S.T.A.R. Labs and order a couple pizzas.

"You can say that again," Len agreed.

The two of them were mostly quiet as they changed for bed and Sara was first to flop onto the mattress; followed only a few minutes later by Len.

"But I did get one thing out of Mick's little disappearing act," He said as he draped an arm across her middle and began drawing invisible patterns on her pregnant belly just as he had the night before.

"A reason to murder him?" She joked and he couldn't help but smile,

"Ok, two things." He amended, "No, I realized that it could've been real and it could've been me. So from now on I don't care what hell bent enemies Rip needs help with, I'm done, at least for now." He promised and as much as Sara knew it's normally her style to argue she just couldn't. She was happy to hear this; she didn't want to worry about him again like she had yesterday.

"Good," she giggled as she leaned over to kiss him. "Because it's annoying when you have all the fun," she teased after pulling away and he smirked back at her, and then pulled her in for another kiss.

He kissed her deeply, her responsive moaning only encouraging him more. She moved to kneel before him and he rose with her, never once breaking the kiss. He kept his hands roaming her hips as she leaned further into him, her stomach pressing against his arm as she titled to get a better angle on his mouth. He felt her briefly shiver against him, and not the sexy kind of tremor that comes from pleasure either. He was planning on just continuing on, but she pulled away panting.

"Wait, did you feel that?" She asked,

"Yeah, are you really that cold?" He asked and her face lit up in a bright smile in response.

"Far from it," she promised, "That, Leonard, was your child reminding us what happens when we go too far." She joked and at first he just raised an eyebrow at her and so she sat back on her knees, taking his hand and guiding it to a spot on her stomach where she had felt the movement.

It was only a second before Len felt what he had previously thought was just her muscles twitching, but now he realized it was something very different. This was their baby kicking from inside of Sara, proof that the little thing growing within her stomach was alive. He made him smile brightly and her giggle as if she were a teenager on her first high. He crashed his lips back to hers and kissed her hard before pulling away,

"I love you," he told her and she giggled in reply before pulling him back to her for another kiss, that was all the confirmation she needed to give.


	17. Shadows of the Past

"What are you two doing?" Leonard asked when he came home almost two weeks after Mick's funeral and found his girlfriend and his sister sitting on the couch with a laptop, a checklist, and a few magazines.

"Planning Sara's baby shower," Lisa replied just as her brother came up behind the couch and peered over her shoulder at the laptop screen, taking a look at the invitation she was designing.

"What's a baby shower?" He asked and both girls turned their heads to look at him with very unamused glares. "Kidding," he defended dryly, his hands up in surrender as he walked around and took a seat in the chair. "That's one of the things that the guy isn't supposed to go to, right?" He asked and Sara nodded,

"Right so October 8th find somewhere else to be," she instructed him.

"I don't know, it's the twenty-first century, I think he should come." Lisa mocked and while Sara smirked Leonard just looked annoyed.

"Some things are tradition for a reason Lisa," he insisted, very much wanting to avoid going to this baby shower.

"I don't know Len, she does have a point." Sara laughed and Len just glared at her very unamused, causing her to laugh even more. "Calm down, I'm not going to make you come." She assured him.

"Thank you," he said,

"Ok, so pink or blue invitations?" Lisa suddenly asked Sara and Len couldn't help but chuckle, he warned her that Lisa was going to go off the deep end.

"I don't know, how about green?" Sara suggested, she had her second ultrasound done last week but they had ultimately decided to keep the baby's gender as a surprise, something that had annoyed both Lisa and Cisco because it meant that now they had to prolong their bet.

Lisa groaned but began browsing around her program for a green or maybe even a yellow that both she and Sara could deem acceptable.

"Why are you two planning a baby shower two months in advance?" Len asked but neither of the girls look away from the laptop screen, in fact Sara ignored him completely and just pointed to something on the screen.

"This isn't like a birthday party that you can decide to have the night before, you have to do a gift registry and all that stuff in advance. Oh yeah, that's good." Lisa explained before looking at whatever Sara was pointing to on the screen.

He knew she was right, but Len still rolled his eyes at how involved his sister had made herself with this. Who knew that an ex-criminal nearly turned hero and raised by an abusive bastard could be so openly excited about a baby?

Actually, that is one quality of Lisa that Leonard had always admired. Their father was always, for lack of a better term, an asshole. On top of that their mom died when she was still in diapers, she was raised pretty much by a kid and an elderly dementia patient. No one ever showed her how to properly care for anything; all she has in that department maternal instinct, most of which their father probably traumatized out of her as a kid. But she's never let these things hinder her. It was never a question for her; she never said " _If _I have kids," it was always _when _. She was always so confident that she would become a mother one day, and that she would be better than their father ever was. Len had made the same vow, but on an _if _notion. He never really pictured himself settling down and having children, thought he'd die on a job before he ever got around to it. But now, here they are, he and his girlfriend are having a baby and his sister is right by their side and so sure that she and him can be better than their father that the dead man doesn't even cross her mind.__  
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______But he crosses his._ _ _ _ _ _

______Lewis Snart crosses through the mind of his son that night in the form of a dream. Leonard remembers all of the pain that his father inflicted on him and his sister, and he remembers all of the years that he foolishly believed that the cruel punishments had been something that dads just did. So it was in is dream where Leonard saw himself screaming, not yelling, but full blown screaming. He was in the living room of the apartment, he couldn't make out his words and he couldn't stop them. But he heard another noise along with his own, the sound of crying. High pitched sobs that were only ever interrupted by hiccups coming from the same source. Finally, he did make out one thing that he said, but he wished that he hadn't._ _ _ _ _ _

________"SHUT UP!" His dream counterpart bellowed before he heard the all too familiar smack of a flat palm hitting harshly against bare flesh.  
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______Len bolted up in a cold sweat, eyes snapping opening as he caught his breath and Sara's eyes fluttered open next to him._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Leonard?" She asked with a yawn before she sat up, "What is it?"_ _ _ _ _ _

______"Nothing," he replied as his girlfriend rubbed the sleep from her eyes and even in her tired state still managed to fix him with a glare that said she didn't believe him for even a second._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Just tell me," she pleaded but when he gave no indication that he was going to speak she huffed in annoyance. "Come on, I'm up now and I'm not going back to sleep, so you might as well tell me so we don't have to sit here in silence." She insisted and so he huffed out a sigh._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Do think I'd ever hurt our kid?" He asked her, she seemed taken back by that answer and although she didn't he noticed how she subconsciously moved a hand to rest on her stomach, he sure did._ _ _ _ _ _

______"No," she finally answered, "Why would you- you're father?" She asked knowingly and he sighed,_ _ _ _ _ _

______"I know I'm not him, and I'm not too worried because I never raised a hand to Lisa, but the fear is still there." He admitted and Sara nodded solemnly,_ _ _ _ _ _

______"I know what you mean," she agreed and he simply looked curiously at her. "My bloodlust," she clarified, "I have control of it now but it's still inside of me, what if, what if the baby gets it?" She asked fearfully._ _ _ _ _ _

______Truthfully Len didn't know how to respond to that, he knew Sara wouldn't listen if he told her the idea was crazy and to be honest he wasn't so sure it was. He did pay SOME attention in school and he knows that mental disorders can be hereditary, what if bloodlust works that way?_ _ _ _ _ _

______"What about Ra's's daughter?" He found himself asking while putting an arm around Sara and pulling her closer to him. "Did she ever have a bloodlust problem?" He continued and Sara shook her head, much to his relief._ _ _ _ _ _

______"No," she replied, "But Ra's was her father, so obviously she was never… you know, inside of him." Sara explained and this time Len could tell her that she was being paranoid._ _ _ _ _ _

______"That doesn't make a difference," he assured her, "As long as you don't let your bloodlust overpower you while your pregnant it won't matter that you're the one carrying it." He assured but she didn't look convinced._ _ _ _ _ _

______"How do you know that?" She asked and he sighed,_ _ _ _ _ _

______"I don't," he admitted, "But I'm thinking it works the same way as stress; if you had a stress problem the kid would stand just as much of a chance at getting it as it would if it were me who had the problem. The only thing that would increase the chances would be if you were constantly stressed throughout your pregnancy." He explained and at that Sara couldn't help but raise a quizzical eyebrow at him._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Where did you learn that?" She questioned and he simply smirked,_ _ _ _ _ _

______"I might have skimmed through a few of those books," He admitted and she smirked, she had been keeping a few pregnancy books underneath the bed, as well as downloaded a few to her iPad, but Leonard had continuously claimed that they were stupid and full of lies._ _ _ _ _ _

______"I told you those were helpful," Sara smirked as she cuddled closer to him. "Don't worry about Lewis, you're going to be great." She assured him._ _ _ _ _ _

______"There's no textbook answer for that," He pointed out, still a little unsure of himself._ _ _ _ _ _

________"Don't need one," Sara insisted while closing her eyes, "The last few months are proof enough."  
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._ _ _ _

______That conversation wasn't revisited much, or at all really, after that night. But there was one thing mentioned that apparently did need revisiting, and that was Ra's al Ghul's daughter._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sara decided to go to Jitter's one morning on her way to work, partly because they were out of coffee at the apartment and partly because Lisa had texted her saying that she had overslept and asking the blonde if she wouldn't mind bringing her a coffee. So with that decided Sara had gone into the coffee shop and after a few minutes of waiting in line she noticed a woman sitting alone at one of the tables. There was something familiar about this woman, she had dark brown hair and a complexion that made her appear mostly of Asian decent but maybe second or third generation. Sara knew she had seen this woman before, thought that she even might have known her once, but she just couldn't place it. After a few minutes the woman noticed her and immediately she appeared to be studying her just curiously, and that was when Sara placed her face._ _ _ _ _ _

______The woman was Nyssa._ _ _ _ _ _

______She hadn't recognized her at first because the clothes that she was wearing looked so out of place on Nyssa's body. Sure Sara had seen her in street clothes before when on undercover assignments, though those were few and far between. But she had always opted for nothing more than a pair of jeans and a hoodie over a t-shirt, along with some thrift store sneakers. This Nyssa was wearing a pair of wedged heels with her dark blue skinny jeans, a red sheer shirt with a dangling gold necklace and matching earrings. She had her hair pulled back into a low and neat ponytail, which was probably another factor in Sara not recognizing her at first. But she seemed to place Sara only a split second after Sara placed her, and once she did she promptly got up and made her way for the door of the coffee shop._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sara knew that she shouldn't do this, she knew that she should just stay put and order her coffee. But something about letting Nyssa run off without saying anything to her just didn't feel right. So she got out of line and took off after the other girl, who hadn't even gotten halfway down the street by the time Sara got outside._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Nyssa!" She called and she could practically feel Nyssa cringe before turning around, apparently she really thought she was going to get away._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Hello Sara, I didn't see you." Nyssa said with a fake smile as she turned around and Sara rolled her eyes._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Really?" She questioned, "Because you looked right at me." She pointed out and Nyssa did nothing but look down at the hands she was wringing together nervously._ _ _ _ _ _

______"You're right, I'm sorry. I was just… taken by surprise." She apologized, gesturing one hand to Sara's all too obvious baby bump._ _ _ _ _ _

______"I…" Sara trailed off, letting the words die on her lips, because she didn't have to explain herself to Nyssa. She doesn't own Nyssa anything, especially not a justification to her relationship with Leonard._ _ _ _ _ _

________"I should get going, I'm just passing through. But it was good to see you," Nyssa all but stuttered before she hurried off down the street, leaving Sara standing there alone outside of Jitters.  
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._ _ _ _

______"Wait so you went to get coffee this morning, and ran into your ex-girlfriend who is an even more dangerous assassin than you are?" Cisco asked after Lisa had forced it out of Sara what was bothering her._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Pretty much," Sara confirmed_ _ _ _ _ _

______"Should we be worried?" Barry asked, now joining in on the conversation._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Doesn't either of you have any actual work to do?" Sara asked but Cisco, though he made a falsely thoughtful face, shook his head._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Nope, not until the meta-human alert app picks anything up." He replied; Sara rolled her eyes at the notion that Cisco really had nothing better to do with his time than grill her about Nyssa. But she knew that Barry might be telling the truth, considering he has the day off from CCPD, something about a gas leak in the crime lab._ _ _ _ _ _

______"No, there is no reason to worry." She assured them and, as if on cue, Barry's phone began buzzing._ _ _ _ _ _

________"Hello," He answered it, his brow furrowing as whoever was on the other end talked to him, "I'm on my way." He said before hanging up the phone and looking to the others. "I've got to go to work, there's been a murder."  
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______Barry returned to S.T.A.R. Labs a few hours later, looking very disturbed._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Hey, how'd it go?" Caitlin asked and Barry just shook his head as he huffed out a sigh._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Where's Sara?" He asked, gaining everyone's attention._ _ _ _ _ _

______"She went to the bathroom, why?" Cisco asked and Barry sighed again._ _ _ _ _ _

______"They I.D.'d the killer, it's Nyssa."_ _ _ _ _ _


	18. Pieces to a Puzzle

Sara did not take it well when her friends told her about Nyssa, although with all things considered things could've gone a lot worse. It just didn't make sense to Sara, and not because she was in denial. Nyssa had disbanded The League of Assassins, she wanted to take killers out of this world, so what would send reeling back so far? She thought that maybe, MAYBE, it could've been their encounter earlier in the morning but that didn't seem right. Now that she knew this she realized that maybe Nyssa had run off and been nervous for a reason other than what she initially thought, but it isn't like Nyssa to get nervous about a kill.

Things only got stranger when Barry shared with them the identity and condition of the victim. He was former League of Assassins, Sara recognized him immediately. It had never been a secret that he'd regretted joining the league and was always opposed to taking lives, but he never ran because as sick and twisted as it may sound the life had fascinated him. Nyssa, as far as Sara knew, never had a problem with him. Then there was the way in which he had been murdered; two strong hands suffocated him by squeezing his neck. Such a brutal tactic was not Nyssa's style, and neither was getting caught. If Nyssa truly had gone back to killing she would've made sure that she wasn't caught, so there had to be another explanation for this.

She told this much to Barry, who agreed that she was making a fair point but just in case told her to be careful because although Nyssa had been identified, granted under a false name, she was yet to be captured. Sara assured him that she would be careful but honestly she doubted she had much to be careful of, except for how she would explain today's events to her boyfriend.  
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She arrived at the apartment all too quickly and long before she had thought of a way to tell Snart about the situation. Of course there was always the option of not telling him at all but she wasn't going to do that. If he ever did find out then things between them would only go south and undoubtedly be very hard to repair. So she had to tell him, at the very least she could argue that she could've hidden it from him when he grew mad. So with that much decided she drew a deep breath as she opened the door and prayed he wouldn't be home yet, prayers that came crashing down when she saw him pulling a thing of iced tea out of the fridge.

"Hey," he greeted her, glancing over to the door when he heard it open.

"Hey," she said back as she came in and noticed two cheeseburgers sitting on a paper plate on the counter.

"Can't promise those are any good," He said when he saw her eyeing the food; she just rolled her eyes at him. She had learned a long time ago that although he pretends that he isn't Leonard Snart is actually a very good cook.

"How long have you been home?" Sara asked while he poured two glasses of iced tea and shrugged.

"Maybe two hours?" He guessed, "Would've been home later but the last appointment for the day cancelled," he explained and she nodded, "How was your day?" He asked and she huffed.

"Interesting," she settled on, sparking her boyfriend's interest.

"Oh yeah?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink, "How so?"

"Well for starters, I saw Nyssa at Jitters," she admitted and that had him choking. Sara cringed as he coughed until his airways cleared and he drank a little more iced tea just to get rid of the residual amount left clogging is throat.

"How is she?" He finally asked,

"Well… she ran off and four hours later she was identified as the killer in a murder that happened this morning." This time he did little more than raise an eyebrow, and not the amused kind that he normally raises.

He was quiet for a minute, and so was Sara. She wanted him to say something, anything. Accuse her of something, tell her this news means nothing to him, she just wants him to say something; and finally he does.

"I doubt an assassin is very likely to let herself be identified, so the question is, whose framing her?" He asked and despite the obvious seriousness of the situation Sara wanted to break out into a smile and run around the counter into his arms. She didn't, of course, but she did allow herself a look of relief before a knock at the door cut off her chance at doing anything else.

Leonard eyed the door suspiciously, Sara did the same, and they both had a sinking feeling about who could be on the other side. Despite the fact that if they were right the visitor was most likely no threat, and not to mention that even at five months pregnant Sara is still more than capable of protecting herself, Len still moved over to the door with a protective arm reaching out and silently signaling his girlfriend to stay behind him. He had no weapon, but he knew he wouldn't need one. So he opened the door and just as he had expected Nyssa was standing in the outside hallway, although he hadn't been expecting her face to appear as though she wanted to run away.

"Honey, it's for you." He mocked before stepping aside so that Sara could get to the door.

"Nyssa-"

"I didn't know where else to go," Nyssa quickly cut Sara off, clearly in no mood for a lecture.

"How did you even find me?" Sara demanded, folding her arms accusingly across her chest, Len was still surprised that she could still manage the position.

"Oh please Sara, I've been trained by the league since the day I was born, tracking you isn't much of a challenge when you're not hiding." She scoffed and Sara was about to respond, although with what she didn't know, when Len of all people cut her off.

"As fun as having this conversation in the middle of the hallway is, why don't you come in?" He suggested, prompting both girls to look at him dumbfounded. He ignored them of course and just waited for Nyssa come inside. "You explain what happened to that guy this morning and I'll be over in the corner, trying to figure out if I'm relevant to this situation." He continued and so after another few seconds Nyssa came in and Sara closed the door behind her while Len merely returned to his supper.

Sara ushered Nyssa inside and pointed her towards the living room area while she made her way over to the little kitchenette and leveled a glare with her boyfriend.

"Eat your supper later Snart, you're relevant to this situation." She told him and although he tried to feign disappointment it failed him and he ended up smirking.

"Good," he said, glad to see that Sara probably would stay with him over Nyssa.

He followed her into the living room where their guest was already seated in the chair, although she sat on the very edge and looked as though she might bolt at any minute; it reminded Len about the way he used to sit in school.

"I didn't kill that man," Nyssa immediately insisted, cutting right to the chase.

"Really?" Sara asked skeptically, "Because he's dead and your prints are on him." She reminded her ex and her intensity caused Len to raise an eyebrow at her, not that she noticed.

Nyssa, like Leonard, noticed Sara accusing tone but much like the former crook she chose to ignore it.

"I know, and I think like Malcolm was controlling Thea when she killed you I think someone might have been controlling me, because I can't remember anything that happened after leaving the coffee shop." Nyssa admitted and that got Sara to drop the bad cop routine.

"Nyssa, who could get close enough to drug you?" She asked in a much more understanding voice, one both Leonard and Nyssa hoped she would be keeping.

"My sister," Nyssa replied nervously, Sara's eyes widened.

She had only ever known Talia as a child back when she was left behind in 1958. When Sara had originally joined the league in 2008 Talia al Ghul had been a taboo subject, as were all league deserters. Ra's had tried finding her, but as his daughter she knew how to cover her tracks from even him and all of his resources.

"She contacted me, saying that she was in Central City and that she heard I had disbanded the league." Nyssa went on to explain, "I figured I don't have anything to lose or anywhere better to be, so I decided why not?" She asked, neither her nor Sara missing the roll of Leonard's eyes. "I went to meet with her, and that's the last thing I remember before waking up alone in an ally hours later only to wander back into that coffee shop and see the news playing." She finished and honestly if the story of her own death weren't so eerily similar Sara might have accused Nyssa of making the whole thing up. But that fact combined with the sincerity in Nyssa's eyes convinced her to believe it.

Without a word she pulled out her phone and sent a text to Barry, informing him that she and Leonard were heading down to S.T.A.R. Labs with Nyssa and for him, Cisco, and Caitlin to meet them there.  
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When they got to S.T.A.R. Labs, and after they finally convinced Joe to give them a chance and not drag Nyssa down to the station right away, they found that they were in for an even bigger surprise than everything they had already heard today. Caitlin's first move had been to draw some blood from Nyssa to test for any traces of drugs in her system, which Nyssa had initially protested because despite being a highly trained assassin she has a terrible fear of needles, but she conceded to it when Sara offered to hold her hand. That was when Caitlin rolled up her sleeve and discovered the horribly pronounced bite mark on Nyssa's arm. She gasped upon seeing it, nearly looking away because of how deep and gruesome it was. Sara was just as shocked as Caitlin to see such a mark, but the most disturbing factor in the discovery was that Nyssa was also shocked to see the mark.

"Nyssa, who did that?" Sara finally asked,

"I don't know," Nyssa replied, "You don't think that Talia did?" She asked fearfully and at this point Sara really thought she might be sick. She'd developed a fairly high tolerance for battle wounds over her time in the league, and she could handle large gashes without batting an eye. But it's not secret that abuse was an entirely different story with her, and the idea that a sister could do this just made her stomach turn.

"I can run some test, whoever did it clearly left some DNA behind." Caitlin said, interrupting Sara's thoughts before she discarded her needle and instead collected some dry blood from Nyssa's wound before reaching for a roll of gauze.

She wrapped Nyssa's forearm and then hurried off to run her tests, leaving two former assassins alone in the not very private medical room of the lab. For an agonizingly long couple of minutes they just remained there in silence. Nyssa sitting on the medical bed and Sara standing beside her; both of them trying to think of a decent excuse to leave.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Nyssa finally asked, snapping Sara's attention to her.

"What?" She asked; she had been so zoned out that she hadn't really processed the question.

"Your baby," Nyssa clarified with a slightly amused smile.

"Oh, we don't know." Sara replied, one hand unconsciously moving to rub over her swollen belly. "We're keeping it a surprise," she continued and Nyssa nodded.

"I don't think I said congratulations earlier," Nyssa began and Sara beamed at her.

"Thank you," she said before her face became serious, "Look we'll figure out what happened to you but until we do, don't just assume it was Talia-"

"It's ok," Nyssa cut her off, looking down at her bandaged arm and then back at Sara.

"I knew that going to see Talia would be a mistake, I was born to be her replacement when she refused to bear father a grandchild." She explained and Sara raised an eyebrow at this, she had never heard the details behind Talia's abandonment of the league. "Father, always being an extreme traditionalist, wouldn't hear of a woman bearing the title of the Demon's Head. Like Oliver, the suitor that father had selected for Talia had no interest in joining the league and unlike Oliver there was nothing my father could do to convince him. So he instructed Talia to persuade the man to at least share his bed with her for one night, and if persuasion didn't work he instructed her to employ some other methods. He decided that if he couldn't hand down the league to a son, he would hand it down to a grandson. But Talia refused, she wanted the title of the Demon's Head. Then I came along and when I turned out to be a girl father didn't give up on pressuring Talia, so when she'd had enough she left." Nyssa explained and Sara couldn't help but smirk at the story.

"Sounds like you and Talia aren't very different," she remarked, she had heard all about Nyssa and Oliver's marriage and honestly she still wants to see Oliver's face when Nyssa calls him husband, because she's heard it's hilarious.

"Except that she still wants the title," Nyssa huffed,

"Hey, we don't have proof that Talia did this." Sara said but Nyssa didn't look convinced.

"Don't we?" She asked, "The man who died may have been slightly sociopathic but once he was out of the league he was out, if she wants to reform the league than she'll take out anyone who won't join her." Nyssa theorized and Sara eyed her quizzically.

You're sure?" She asked and Nyssa nodded,

"No doubt about it, why?" She asked and the pregnant blonde sighed.

"Well, for a girl who doesn't remember anything that's happened to her in the past twelve hours, including actually meeting with your sister, that's a pretty detailed guess about what happened." She said and only then did it appear to dawn on Nyssa that she did seem very sure about everything she was saying, and she really did have no evidence for any of it.  
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While the girls were talking in the back room, Leonard had remained comfortably against the doorway in the main lab. Caitlin Snow had just come out of the back and snagged Cisco away to help her with some tests. Joe West had gone home after he realized that the team really wasn't going to let him drag Nyssa down to the station. It was in this moment that Barry decided it would be a good idea to approach his former rival, although why he thought that Leonard had no idea.

"Hey, are you doing ok?" He asked and Len sighed.

"Just peachy, why do you ask?" He inquired and Barry began shifting awkwardly.

"Well I um… I just though that…. You know with everything-" He began stuttering and when it really started to look like he wasn't going to be able to form a complete sentence anytime soon Leonard decided to cut him off and rescue him.

"Contrary to what my girlfriend and apparently you think, I do trust her." He said and Barry's face turned as red as the suit he wasn't currently wearing, like he was ashamed of having thought that Snart wouldn't have trusted his girlfriend around her ex.

"Right… um sorry." The speedster apologized and just as he did Cisco let out a gasp from over by the computers.

"No way," He exclaimed, prompting Barry and Leonard to go join him and Caitlin.

"What is it?" Barry asked but before Cisco had a chance to answer Sara and Nyssa came out from the medical area, having noticed the others all gathering around the computer. Cisco looked up and looked right at Nyssa, an odd mix of horror and excitement spreading across his face.

"You were bitten by a vampire," he deadpanned and in response Nyssa simply scrunched up her nose.

"What?" She asked, knowing that there was no way he could be serious.

"Not exactly a vampire," Caitlin clarified, "But the drug which essentially brainwashed Thea was in your system, the thing is it looks like it was injected venomously." She further explained and that only left everyone just as confused as they had been when Cisco first said "vampire".

"So what? Talia is one of your meta-humans?" Nyssa finally asked and Sara was about to remind her that it might not have been Talia, but Caitlin spoke up first.

"The DNA I found was a 27% match to yours, 25% is the average of how genetically similar half siblings are." She explained with a sympathetic wince, not really needing to ask if she and Talia had the same mother or not; Nyssa's accepting expression said it all.

Nyssa had known Talia was the one who did this, she couldn't explain how but somehow she just knew. But hearing it still threw her for a loop, because how on earth is this possible?

"So her half sister BIT her, and was able to control her?" Barry asked,

"That's what vampire's do bro," Cisco replied and Caitlin just rolled her eyes.

"Talia is not a vampire, although I think it's safe to say that she might be a meta-human." She said and now Nyssa looked really confused.

"A what?" She asked,

"Person with superpowers," Sara supplied, making sure to do so before Barry as so to keep him from blowing his secret.

"Vampire superpowers," Cisco mumbled and this time Caitlin smacked him on the arm. "Ow!" He exclaimed but it went mostly ignored.

"Ok so the half sister bit her and turned her into a mindless drone, how do we stop her from doing it again?" Len interrupted; as much as he loved watching Ramon get hit he was growing board with this conversation and wanted to get it back on track.

"I think Nyssa can help with that," Sara replied with a smirk, although Nyssa didn't look even half as sure as the blonde.

"How?" She questioned,

"You seemed pretty sure that Talia did this and of why, I think maybe you might have some suppressed memories of meeting with her." She explained and so naturally everyone turned to Caitlin for her opinion on the theory.

"It's possible," she confirmed with a shrug, "The drug basically shut down her brain but there has to be something that happened between leaving Jitters and being bit."

"Can you get her to remember?" Len asked and Caitlin shrugged again,

"I could give it a shot, but it's only going to work if she's willing." The doctor replied and almost immediately Nyssa nodded.

"Sure, anything if it'll keep me out of prison." She muttered.  
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Three hours later and they had come to one conclusion; Nyssa does not take well to hypnosis. Of course both she and Sara already knew this, Ra's has conditioned her to be immune to such a common technique, which is probably why Talia had to bite her in the first place. Caitlin could only think of one other way to extract the former assassin's memories, but Cisco wasn't exactly a fan.

"I've never gone into a person's mind!" He exclaimed, it had been explained to Nyssa already that Cisco is also a meta-human and what his powers are capable of. To be honest she didn't really want him wandering around her mind, but so far she hadn't needed to argue.

"You'll be fine, it's not like your physically going into her head." Caitlin argued and so while she and Cisco bicker Nyssa look over at Sara.

"Do you have any normal friends?" She asked and Sara shook her head in amusement.

"Nope," she replied just as Cisco let out a groan, indicating that he had lost the argument.


	19. Little Sisters

"Whoa this is so weird," Cisco exclaimed when he entered Nyssa's memories from earlier today, the assassin in question had to be put to sleep in order to get Cisco into the hidden part of her mind but so far it was working.

"Focus Cisco, what do you see?" Caitlin prompted him from the outside world.

"Right sorry, um… I don't see Nyssa." He said,

"That's because you're in Nyssa's memory, so you're seeing everything through her eyes." Caitlin's voice came explaining,

"Ok, that's trippy." Cisco determined, causing Sara to chuckle.

"Focus Ramon," Snart's much more demanding voice rang in his ear.

"Ok um… I'm in a gym and I'm heading towards a boxing ring, there's a woman there. Maybe thirty or something?" The engineer guessed,

_"Nyssa?" _The woman asked, suddenly looking Cisco's ways.__

___"Talia?" _Nyssa's voice came, surprising Cisco.__ _ _

____"Whoa, I can still hear when Nyssa said." He stated more than asked the question._ _ _ _

____The two girls then proceeded to begin their spar, although this was after Nyssa had gone to the locker room to change and so Cisco literally threw off his Vibe glasses. By the time the others coaxed him into putting them back on the spar was in full swing, and Cisco noticed that even for an assassin Talia was both very fast and very strong._ _ _ _

_____"So I heard you disbanded the league?" Talia questioned as she landed a kick to her sister's stomach._ _ _ _ _

_____"I did," Nyssa gasped out as she went reeling back in pain that made Cisco clutch his stomach. ____ _ _ _

______"Is he ok?" He heard Barry ask,_ _ _ _ _ _

______"Not really," he gasped,_ _ _ _ _ _

______"He's feeling whatever Nyssa remembers feeling," Caitlin explained,_ _ _ _ _ _

______"I wish Nyssa didn't have such a detailed memory," he groaned before regaining his focus on where it needed to be. When he finally accomplished the task of refocusing Talia was standing over her sister with an outstretched hand to help her up, and a smirk on her face._ _ _ _ _ _

_______"How did you hear?" Nyssa asked while allowing her half sister to pull her to her feet._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______"Ran into someone, of all things." She mused in response; "He said he was so happy that you freed him from that life." She continued and at that Nyssa couldn't help but beam with just a little hint of pride._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______"I'm glad, because there are some others who were not happy with my decision." She informed Talia, who smiled sympathetically._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______"There will always be people who stand in your way Nyssa," She advised just before tightening the grip she had on her sister harshly and pulling her arm up, biting her viciously before Nyssa could've done anything to fight back. "You just happen to be standing in mine," she said and just as she did Cisco's entire world turned black. ____ _ _ _ _ _

________Cisco had hardly realized he was shouting out in pain whilst grabbing his arm, but one he had his glasses off the feeling slowly started to fade away._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Ok it was definitely Talia, I think it's safe to say that Nyssa's right and she's trying to reform the league, and dear god this woman has an incredibly high pain tolerance!" He exclaimed, having noticed that Nyssa hadn't reacted at all to the pain when Talia bit her, or she doesn't remember reacting at least._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"She's former leader of the League of Assassins, what did you expect?" Sara mocked as Cisco continued to grip his forearm while the pain slowly faded away from it._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Her sister tried taking a chuck of flesh out of her arm, maybe a flinch!" The longhaired scientist exclaimed,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Ok so we know Talia met Nyssa in a gym with a boxing ring-"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"And there's only one boxing gym in town," Barry cut Caitlin off,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Convenient," Leonard put in, earning little more than a variety of glares from the others._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"I'll talk to Joe in the morning, maybe he can go down there and ask if anybody's seen Talia." Barry continued, this prompted all the others to glance at either the wall clock or a phone and realize that it was already past midnight._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"She won't wake up for another few hours," Caitlin said in reference to Nyssa._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"I'll stay," Cisco volunteered with a sigh._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Are you sure?" Sara asked but her friend nodded,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Yeah, I got some things to do that I was putting off until tomorrow but considering it technically is tomorrow I might as well get started." He excused but the others still looked skeptical at the idea of leaving Cisco alone and in charge of an unconscious Nyssa. "Guys, come on. Do you have any idea how many solo nightshifts I covered while Barry was in a coma?" He asked and at that Caitlin appeared to surrender her apprehension, and Sara took the cue from her that it was safe to do the same._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________"Ok," the blonde agreed as she reached for her boyfriend's hand, "Call if you need us." She instructed and Cisco nodded.  
.  
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._ _ _ _ _ _

________"Are we sure it was a good idea to leave Ramon with your ex?" Len asked as he and Sara drove home._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"He'll be fine," Sara chuckled with a sleepy smile on her face._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Leonard smirked as he spared a glance over at her, noticing how her head was propped against the cool glass of the window and her eyes were closed. "I didn't realize you were this tired," he remarked and a small smile spread across his girlfriend's lips._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Me either," she replied before stifling a yawn, "It just hit me around the time Cisco finished screaming, I think everything from today just sort of caught up with me." She explained and Len chuckled,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Then go to sleep, I'll wake you up when we get home." He promised,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________"Ok," Sara murmured as she settled a little more comfortably into her seat. "Oh by the way, you make a much better pillow than the window."  
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._ _ _ _ _ _

________Hours later and all was quiet in S.T.A.R. Labs. Cisco had fallen asleep in his chair over at the computers not long after the others all left and Nyssa was still yet to wake. Actually the assassin was just staring to stir out of her slumber when suddenly she snapped awake, the sensation of a tight hand covering her mouth informing her that she was not alone. She opened her eyes to see the face framed by brown hair that she had recently learned to associate with Talia, a name that had been faceless throughout most of her life._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Shush little sister, don't make a sound and no one has to know I was ever here." Talia whispered, leaning into Nyssa's face and staying there until she was sure that the younger assassin was going to heed her warning and keep her voice down. It was then that she climbed off of Nyssa's bed and removed her hand from over her mouth, leaving Nyssa to gasp for the oxygen she had been deprived of._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"How did you find me?" She finally asked and Talia just looked at her with a bored expression._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Oh please Nyssa, I hid from Ra's al Ghul for most of my life; I could track you even if you were invisible." She taunted, "Although running to a bunch of meta-humans was a bit of a surprise, power doesn't really seem like it's your style." She mocked, pacing around the small room as if she were thinking, but in reality she was slowly moving closer and closer to Nyssa._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Nyssa of course saw this and made a break for it through an opening that her sister had yet to close, but it didn't matter. Talia was too fast and caught up with her sister almost immediately and tackled her to the ground, holding her there with strength that was far too intense to be natural._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Luckily, all this noise woke Cisco and Talia's preoccupation with Nyssa allowed him the time that he needed to send a text to Barry. Once that was done he grabbed ahold of the nearest weapon, which happened to be a monkey wrench, and hurried over to the commotion._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Let her go Talia," he ordered and seeing him (or more specifically his weapon) the woman in question let out a laugh._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"This is your protection?" She demanded just before a flash of red came out of nowhere and tackled her off of Nyssa._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________"Nope, this is." It responded to her.  
.  
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._ _ _ _ _ _

________"Why didn't you call us?" Sara demanded the next morning when the events that had taken place around four a.m. were being recapped for her and Lisa._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Why didn't you call me?" The other woman demanded, although she was asking Sara and not Barry, as she hadn't even been called the first time._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"We had it under control," Barry excused but Sara simply rolled her eyes, as well as avoided Lisa's question._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Talia had been locked up in the pipeline before she even realized what happened, and Caitlin had confirmed that she is in fact a meta-human with powers that resemble a vampire. Despite the fact that it's nine in the morning and she's currently awake Cisco is still joking that she might be nocturnal._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"So why did she make you kill that guy anyway?" Lisa asked Nyssa once it became obvious that no one was going to apologize to her for leaving her out of the fun._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"The league may be disbanded, but I still hold the title of Ra's. If she wants it then she needs to prove herself superior to me." She explained,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Which taking control of her definitely counts as," Sara added and Nyssa nodded just as Barry came over._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Well Joe's coming to bring Talia to Iron Heights, with the proof that the drugs were in Nyssa's system and that Talia can emit them from her teeth it's more than enough proof to arrest her so Nyssa, you're free." He congratulated and the former assassin smiled brightly at the news._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Thank you, for everything." She said to the speedster who smiled in response before leaving the three girls alone._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"So where are you going to go?" Sara asked and Nyssa thought on it._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"I don't know," she admitted, "I was traveling before all this and I'd like to get back to it, and who knows? Maybe I'll find someone out there for me." She said and Sara smiled, and Lisa sensed that now was probably a good time for her to go over to Cisco's desk and get in his way._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Once Lisa was gone both Sara and Nyssa laughed, both being very well aware that she was trying to allow them a proper goodbye._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"I really am happy for you Sara," Nyssa said, "I was in shock yesterday, but I truly am happy that you've found Leonard, I can tell that he loves you." She continued and Sara smiled as she rubbed a hand over her belly, trying to get some of the constant movement she could feel inside of her to settle down._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Thank you," she said, sort of regretting what she had been doing when she felt the baby finally settle, during all this chaos Nyssa hadn't gotten the chance to feel it kick. "And you will find someone out there for you, just try not to kick her ass too hard." She warned playfully, which resulted in Nyssa laughing before enveloping the blonde in a hug. They held each other for a long but much needed minute before finally pulling apart, although when they did Nyssa kept her hands firmly on Sara's stomach._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"And as for you little one, be good for your parents, and try to only cause a little mischief." She directed and Sara laughed at the advice._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Gee thanks," she remarked sarcastically, "You know when my kid is chasing after vampires, I'm blaming you." She warned as Nyssa took her hands back._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"My sister is not a vampire," she defended but Sara rolled her eyes, despite knowing that Nyssa's statement is true._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Stay out of trouble," she advised,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________"No promises," Nyssa declared and Sara smirked, because that in itself was a promise. So with that Nyssa said one last goodbye before leaving S.T.A.R. Labs, and leaving Sara to smile to herself.  
.  
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._ _ _ _ _ _

________In the weeks following the little fiasco with Nyssa and Talia team Flash had their usual meta-humans to deal with, plus making sure Talia stayed in prison. But the real concern for Sara was planning her baby shower._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________When she and Lisa were finishing up the invitations they had realized that Sara and Leonard's apartment was a bit too small to have a lot of people over at once. Lisa had suggested renting a party room at some kind of restaurant, but Sara wasn't too thrilled with the idea. Fortunately for her, well depending on how you look at it, her mother had been coming over for dinner that night and just so happened to show up while the girls were arguing. You see Dinah's apartment is bigger than Sara's and so she was quick to offer her daughter the option of having the shower at her place._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Mom are you sure?" Sara had asked when her mom suggested the idea,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Of course, I'm your mother Sara, I would love to have the baby shower at my apartment." She insisted and so with that decided Lisa was finally able to put an address on the invitations and send them out, and that is what led Sara to this conversation._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Hello?" She answered her phone about two weeks after the invitations went out._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Hi, Sara?" The voice on the other end asked, "It's Thea."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Sara's eyes briefly went wide upon hearing who she was speaking to, and while she was relieved to hear that she had gotten the right mailing address from Oliver for his sister she was also well aware of what this call was about._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Hi, how are you?" She asked, trying to sound casual._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"I'm good, I uh… I just have a question for you." She began,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"What is it?" Sara asked,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"So I just got my mail and I was wondering if maybe you could explain to me why I'm holding an invitation to your baby shower?" She asked and Sara cracked a grin as she imagined Thea's stunned face on the other end of the call._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Because I'm six months pregnant?" Despite the fact that it was an answer, Sara phrased it like a question. "Thea?" This time she really was asking, as her friend had gone silent. "Thea are you there?" She asked again,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Yeah, I'm here." Her friend replied in a suddenly weak voice, "You're six months pregnant?" She demanded and at the sound of the shock in her voice Sara could barely suppress a giggle._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Yep," she confirmed,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"So let me get this straight," Thea said, "You took off on some mission through time, and came back pregnant?" She demanded and Sara mulled over the accusation for a minute._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"That's a very stripped down rendition of it, but essentially yes." She confirmed, Thea was quiet again for another few seconds as she processed that the invitation wasn't a mistake or some kind of joke; this was actually happening._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Ok well congratulations and I'll be at the shower," She finally said, her voice just barely growing stronger as the news wrapped around her head._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Thanks Thea, I'll see you then." Sara said happily before she and her friend hung up, and when they did she let out all of the laughter that she had been suppressing during that entire conversation._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	20. Baby Shower (Part 1)

When Lisa had first suggested Sara have a baby shower the blonde had accused her of only wanting an excuse to barge into the apartment with a bunch of balloons. So let the record show that although it wasn't her reason for insisting on the shower Lisa still did exactly that when entering the apartment of Sara's mother.

"We're here," Sara called throughout the apartment as she and her balloon wielding friend entered, the shower wouldn't be starting for another few hours but they had come to help get everything ready.

"I'm in the kitchen," Dinah called back, her apartment was really more of a condo and so it had a full kitchen and living room.

Lisa set her bouquet of balloons down on the floor along with the other bags she and Sara had brought before she followed Sara through the apartment and into the kitchen. They found Dinah bent over a cake as she frosted it, they had discussed simply buying a cake but ultimately they had just decided to bake one instead. Anyway, Dinah put down her butter knife when she saw her daughter enter and went to give her a hug.

"Hi honey," she greeted as Sara hugged her back before releasing her.

"Hi mom, this is Lisa, Leonard's sister." Sara introduced and with a polite smile Lisa held out her hand.  
"Hi," she said and she was taken by surprise when, instead of accepting her offered hand, Dinah went in for a hug.

Sara couldn't help but snicker at Lisa's obvious surprise at her mother's actions, or smile at how despite the shock Lisa didn't tense up like she knew Leonard might have.

When Dinah released Lisa she didn't seem to notice the girl's surprise, and if she did she didn't say anything.

"Ok, I'm working on the cake, Laurel is bringing brownies, the fruit is in the fridge and so is the cheese, I have crackers in the cabinet. You girls brought decorations right?" She asked and Lisa nodded while Sara answered.

"Yeah, they're in the living room." She replied,

"Good, why don't you two start setting them up while I finish with the cake?" Dinah suggested and so with a nod from Sara the two headed back to the living room and began going through the plastic bags of decorations that they had brought with them.

"So what's Lenny doing today?" Lisa asked as they started sorting through the bags.

"Well I asked him to put the crib and the changing table together, let's just hope he can manage that." She half joked; although she's sure that a man who instinctively cases every building he comes across can mange to properly assemble two pieces of baby furniture.

Lisa snorted out a laugh at the image of her brother sitting in the spare bedroom of his apartment, trying to piece together a crib and a changing table. To be honest, she also thought he would be able to do it without a problem, considering it was him who had put her childhood playhouse together as well as her bed when she outgrew the crib as a toddler. He's the one who disassembled her crib; assembling one should be no problem for him.  
.  
.  
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Sara and Lisa really should reevaluate the amount of faith that they put into their favorite ex-convict.

So far the girls had been gone for an hour and Len had finally managed to get the box to the crib open. Granted, he didn't start immediately they left, but he had still been trying to open the stupid box for a full ten minutes. Sure cutting the tape on it was easy, and actually prying the front flap open hadn't taken him the whole ten minutes. But pulling just one stupid piece out had been nearly impossible! Once he finally got the first piece out the others came progressively easier, and then he was left staring at five large pieces. Two were the head and footboards, two were the bars, and the fifth was the metal rack like thing that the mattress would go on top of. He sighed at the sight of it, breaking things is something he can do, but building them? What's he supposed to do if something falls apart while he's holding something else in place?

"It's a crib Snart, figure it out." He mumbled to himself before stripping off his jacket and setting to work.  
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"Oh my god mom you didn't," Sara groaned in feigned annoyance when her mother entered the living room with one of those centerpieces that is made out of rolled up diapers stacked into a tower almost like a tier cake.

"What?" Dinah asked, "I think it's cute," she defended and Lisa laughed,

"I agree," she said, resulting in Sara sending her a death glare that let her know that she wasn't being helpful in the least. "What?" The brunette asked, "you said no cheesy party games, you didn't say anything about cheesy decorations." She defended and Sara rolled her eyes.

"I hate you both," she grumbled sarcastically while continuing her task of placing the plastic blue and pink utensils into their designated cups.

"You just don't know how to decorate," Dinah mocked as she glanced over everything else in the room.

The girls hadn't gone overboard on decorations, not to say that Lisa didn't try, but they still had a fairly decent amount. They had the balloons of course, which Lisa had strung up throughout the living room. They had gotten paper plates that were either blue with pink question marks or vice versa and they had put up twisted pink and blue streamers over the windows. They had gotten some flowers and put out bowls with popcorn and chips and stuff like that. In the corner they had some little party favors set up on a tray on top of a folding table. Overall the living room looked very nice and ready for the party.

"Looks good," Dinah finally commented, "Well the chicken and the lasagna are in the oven so by the time everyone gets here and settles in they'll be ready." She reported,

"What? I thought we were just doing pizza?" Sara questioned and her mother simply smirked at her.

"Sweetie the only reason we were doing pizza is because it's easier," She mocked,

"Well it is," Sara pointed out,

"I know, and I don't care." Dinah replied before looking to her daughter's friend, who was being very quiet. "What do you think Lisa?" She asked, snapping the younger woman to attention.

"I mean… I still thought we were doing pizza too but… um, chicken sound pretty good." She stuttered out and while the answer seemed to satisfy Dinah the manner in which it came out confused Sara, so when her mother returned to the kitchen she turned her attention to Lisa.

"Are you ok?" She asked, now it was Lisa who seemed confused.

"Huh? Yeah of course, why wouldn't I be?" She asked and Sara shrugged before dropping the issue.  
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Len was about to go grab his gun and freeze the crib together. Every single time he got two pieces to click together he would move onto the next section, only for the previous one to fall out of place. Needless to say, he hadn't gotten much done. It wasn't until after what he had managed to do fell apart for at least the tenth time did he finally get the bright idea to try lying the headboard flat and installing the sides from above. This went reasonably well considering he did manage to get both sets of bars in this time, but then he faced the challenge of lifting up the footboard and snapping it into place. Amazingly he did in fact manage that and he even managed to get the entire crib back on its feet before realizing he had neglected to put in the metal rack. Upon making this discovery Leonard let out a whole slew of well-earned curse words and it took everything in him not to destroy the poorly assembled crib. He had just finished his rant, and was admittedly still feeling the urge to break something, when he heard a knock coming from the front door. With a sigh he went to answer it, not particularly caring who it was so long as their visit allowed him five seconds away from that blasted crib.

He was regretting this opinion when he opened the door to find a certain S.T.A.R Labs scientist on the other side.

"What are you doing here Ramon?" He questioned and Cisco simply shrugged.

"Caitlin's at the baby shower, Barry went somewhere with Joe and Wally, and Mick's out of town so I figured you must be on your own." He replied and the look that Leonard gave him was one of complete and total disbelief.

"Are you seriously telling me that you got so bored, you've actually resorted to hanging out with me?" He asked and again Cisco shrugged, so he sighed. "Well I hate to disappoint you but I'm spending the day putting together baby furniture," he said.

"Want some help?" Cisco offered and again Len just looked at him in disbelief for a minute or two, before deciding that an extra set of hands, even Ramon's, would be a good thing as it meant he would finish sooner. Besides, he shouldn't have to be the only one to suffer assembling that crib.

"Sure, why not?" He agreed, stepping aside to let Cisco in.

"Wait really?" Cisco asked, not moving from his spot in the hall until Leonard leveled a glare with him. "Really, ok then." He quickly said, realizing that Snart was actually taking him up on his offer to help.  
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Initially Sara had been secretly worried about having Donna at the baby shower, especially once it was decided they would have it at Dinah's apartment. She was confident that both her mother and soon to be stepmother could behave like adults and be civilized towards each other, but the fact that she hardly knows Donna and therefor isn't really sure what she's like left a nagging feeling in her about the situation. However it was now almost an hour into the party and so far so good, they weren't exactly talking to each other but neither seemed hostile towards the other, and them meeting seemed to have gone well enough so really Sara couldn't ask for more than that. Currently Donna was talking with Thea about the wedding; apparently Sara's pregnancy wasn't the only thing she had been unaware of. Lyla, who Sara had initially been unsure of inviting because they'd never actually met but Laurel assured her would love to come, had brought her daughter who was currently sitting at a table in the corner and coloring with Sin of all people. Sara smirked at the sight, she always knew Sin had a soft spot for kids but given the life she led she hardly got the chance to show it.

"Guess I'll have to visit Star City a little more after the baby comes, have you babysit." Sara remarked from where she now stood behind Sin, causing both Sin and little Sara to look up at her.

Upon seeing the woman she was named after, little Sara suddenly frowned and threw her arms over her picture.

"No!" She all but cried, leading to a very confused older Sara and a very smug Sin.

"She's drawing you a picture and wants it to be a surprise," The Goth informed her friend and so with a smirk Sara nodded.

"Ok, well I'll just be over there talking to Kendra if you need me." She said to little Sara before heading over to the couch where Kendra was alone and nursing a half drunk cup of soda.

"You look like you're having fun," she teased and Kendra laughed.

"I was talking to Felicity but we started talking about Ray and it went into TMI territory," She confessed with a giggle and Sara had to laugh, knowing Felicity she could only imagine that conversation. "So how's Snart?" Kendra asked,

"He's good, his sister's around here somewhere." She said, looking around but noticing that she couldn't see Lisa anywhere. "She might be in the kitchen with my mom," she decided and Kendra nodded. "How's Carter?" She asked and Kendra smiled with an embarrassed blush.

"He's fine," she admitted but Sara raised an eyebrow at her. "He really is, it's just that we've been thinking a lot about things and we've decided to get married." She confessed and a huge smile lit up Sara's face.

"Kendra that's great!" She exclaimed, leaning over and giving her friend a hug.

"Well we're not officially engaged yet, we were talking one night and we decided that we both want to get married after I brought it up and he said he's still going to propose to me." She explained and Sara laughed, that definitely sounded like Carter.  
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"I'm an engineer, how am I not able to put a changing table together!?" Cisco exclaimed in frustration. He and Len had partially disassembled the crib and put the rack in the bottom, pinching their fingers more than a few times in the process, and then aside from not have the mattress inside that piece of furniture was done. Now they had moved onto the changing table and it wasn't going much better than the crib had.

"If it makes you feel any better, Raymond once said I could be an engineer, and I don't know what I'm doing." Leonard commented from where he was seated on the floor and trying to make sense of the instructions. He had thought that the changing table would be less complicated than the crib, but so far they were about the same level of headache.

"It doesn't," Cisco deadpanned, still very annoyed at his inability to figure out the assembly of a simple table.

"So does my sister still follow you around like a shadow?" Leonard asked, suddenly changing the subject and catching Cisco off guard.

"What?" He asked, although he had heard perfectly clear.

"I know Lisa spends as much time at S.T.A.R. Labs as Sara does, so is she still trailing you like a little lost puppy or as she eased up a bit?" He inquired and Cisco thought for a minute, realizing that while Lisa definitely spent her fair share of time not far from him he hadn't really been viewing it as a nuisance.

"She's toned it down, we put her on the payroll last month." He replied and Len nodded, already being well aware of the information. Without stealing Lisa needed to find a job in order to keep her apartment, and so her friend's at S.T.A.R. Labs figured that she spends all her time there anyway and is actually helpful in catching criminals due to her experience as one so they might as well pay her.

"I heard, she came here cheering about it," he said and Cisco chuckled, he could imagine Lisa doing such a thing. "You know she still has a thing for you," Len stated it more than asked.

"I know," Cisco replied, almost nervously.

"How do you feel about that?" Now Len was just torturing Cisco and he knew it, but that only made him enjoy this conversation.

"I uh…" Cisco stuttered and Len rolled his eyes.

"Just do me one favor Ramon; don't waste her time. Either tell her to find someone else, gently, or make a move, also gently, but don't waste her time." He advised and Cisco nodded fearfully. "Good," Len said, finally getting to his feet. "Let's take a break and get some lunch," and with that he walked past Cisco and out of the room as though the conversation had never happened.  
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Meanwhile at the baby shower lunch had pretty much finished and so Dinah was working on the dishes when Lisa came in.

"I'll do that if you want," she offered,

"Oh no that's ok, I'm just rinsing these trays. If you want to start cutting up pieces of cake that would be great." She instructed,

"Ok," Lisa agreed, moving to the fridge and taking out the cake carefully as so not to drop it. Once she had the cake on the counter she scanned briefly through the drawers until she found a knife and a small spatula and began cutting, placing the finished pieces onto paper plates.

"I really want to thank you, Sara's told me about how much you do for her and Leonard, how you're always around and helping them. I'm sure Sara will never say it but it really means a lot to them," Dinah said and Lisa couldn't help the smile on her face or the swelling in her chest that she felt upon hearing those words.

"I like doing it," she replied, "I mean, Lenny and I didn't exactly have a normal family growing up so now that he's found one, I'm just really happy for him." She admitted, turning to face Dinah and when she did the question she was about to ask on where to put the cake died on her lips when she saw the older woman's confused face.

It was then that Lisa realized her error; Len and Sara hadn't told Dinah about Lewis. She knew Dinah knew Len had a criminal record, but she also knew he'd set his record straight. She didn't know that said record was a result of their father dragging his children on jobs, she didn't know about Lisa's record or their mother leaving or anything.

"I didn't… I thought they told you, look Lenny's going to be a great dad." She quickly decided to say, afraid that maybe with the knowledge that Leonard didn't have a good home life as a child Dinah might suddenly fear for her grandchild's safety.

Of course deep down she knew that probably wasn't what Dinah was thinking, that it was only her knowledge of the full story that was leading her brain to jump to such conclusions.

"Lisa," Dinah said, snapping her out of her stuttering. "You're just as much a part of the family as your brother is, I hope you know that." She said and at first Lisa was taken back slightly, because no, she didn't know that.

"Hey, you guys need any help?" Sara questioned as she walked in,

"Sara, your friend here is under the impression that she isn't a part of the family." Dinah informed her daughter and while Lisa expected Sara to call her mother insane, it was her who was on the receiving end of that line.

"What?" She asked with a slight laugh as she approached the brunette, "Lisa that's crazy, of course you're part of our family." She said and Lisa said nothing, as she had pretty much been rendered speechless.

"I'm going to get a head count of who wants cake," Dinah said, excusing herself from the kitchen and leaving the two girls alone.

"Sara, you had to take Lenny into your life. But you don't-"

"I didn't HAVE to do anything," Sara cut Lisa off. "I didn't have to fall in love with your brother, I didn't have to tell him I was pregnant with his child, I didn't have to move in with him, and I didn't have to introduce him to my mother, who didn't have to accept him. Everything we've done, we've done out of a choice. Leonard has become a part of my family because we chose for him to be, and you're right, no one in that room has to accept and love you like family. But we all want to," she deadpanned and Lisa looked up in surprise at her words. "But now that choice is yours, if you want to be part of this family." She continued and in response Lisa, who nearly had tears in her eyes by now, surged forward and wrapped Sara in a hug.


	21. Everyone Has an Off Day

After the baby shower and after cleaning up from it, Lisa followed Sara home in order to help bring some of the presents up to the apartment.

"Ok, what can we take and what should we rope Leonard into taking?" Sara asked as the two of them opened the trunk of Lisa's car and tried to figure out who should take what.

"Hm," Lisa hummed out, chewing thoughtfully on the inside of her cheek as she tried to figure out exactly what Sara could and couldn't carry and what she wanted to torture her brother with. "I can take the car seat if you can take those two bags with the clothes, we'll send Lenny out for the bouncer and… figure the rest out from there?" She suggested and Sara nodded,

"Sounds good," she agreed, so with that decided Lisa handed Sara the two bags that all of the baby clothes had been stuffed into before grabbing the rather large and bulky box containing the car seat before allowing her friend to slam the trunk closed.

"Are you sure you've got that?" Sara asked as Lisa struggled to get a decent grip on the box.

"Yeah, let's just go." She said,

It took the two girls a little while to get up to the apartment, Lisa constantly readjusting her grip on the box she was awkwardly carrying, but once they got there and opened the door Sara stopped in her tracks, causing Lisa to do the same as she peered over the heavy box in her arms to see what was going on.

There, standing in the living room and casually tossing a football back and forth, were Leonard and Cisco.

"So how was the party?" Len asked as the girls made their way in, once he took note of his sister's situation he sent a glare at Cisco who looked back and forth between the two siblings twice before realizing what he was being instructed to do.

"Do you need any help there Lisa?" He asked, a little too late as Lisa set her box down on the counter just as his words left his mouth.

"Not with this but there's some more stuff in my car if you want to help," she said,

"Of course," Cisco replied and so the two of them disappeared out the door, heading for the parking lot and leaving Sara and Len alone in the apartment.

"Party was good, how were things here?" Sara questioned with a smirk, setting the bags that she had down on the couch.

"Well nothings on ice and I think everything we assembled is sturdy, couldn't exactly have Ramon test it out." Len remarked and Sara chuckled. "Do he and Lisa need any more help?"

"Only a little," Sara commented, for the most part they had received mostly clothes and toys for the baby, many of which were either a frog or duck theme. There were a few other things such as diapers, some bottles and pacifiers, and other miscellaneous items but nothing big like the car seat or the bouncer that Lisa undoubtedly had Cisco carrying by now. The only other big things were the stroller and the bassinette but they had left those behind and Dinah said she would bring them over the next time she stopped by.

Once they had unloaded all of the baby gifts from Lisa's little car Cisco announced that he was going to head home before it got too dark since he was walking, Lisa then offered him a ride. With no good reason to turn her down the two of them left together and that left Sara and Leonard alone to unpack all of the stuff Sara had gotten at the baby shower.

"Wow, I'm impressed, you guys actually managed to put both the crib and the changing table together." Sara said when her boyfriend led her into the nursery and showed her what he and Cisco had done.

The changing table was bare, as was the crib aside from the mattress, but they were both assembled.

"Just barely but we did, and we did without killing each other." Len gloated and Sara smirked as he turned his head just enough to give her a small kiss. Being at the start of her third trimester it goes without saying that Sara was getting bigger now and she was getting to the point where Leonard had to lean over and be extra mindful of her stomach if he wanted to kiss her. He was sure that she was aware of this, and he was equally sure she hated it, but she hadn't complained yet and so he knew it'd be wise to act as though he hadn't even noticed.

She pulled away grinning, and to be honest she doesn't totally hate Len having to be cautious in a way he didn't before, not yet anyway. For right now he can still manage to lean over and kiss her with his hands gripping her hips and it still makes her feel sexy so until that feeling wears off she can put up with her big belly being a little in the way.  
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Turns out she spoke to soon.

It's not like it was weeks later that she really started to get annoyed with the obvious fact that she was starting to get into the stage of being very pregnant, no it was the very next day. To be fair, however, said day didn't start off all that great. The baby was definitely at a point now where it was starting to push more on her bladder, especially when it moved, and apparently it was up bright and early at the crack of dawn and informing Sara that her ability to hold her pee for hours if she needed to was long gone and she found herself all but jumping out of bed and racing to the bathroom at six a.m. However if anyone has ever tried navigating around furniture and through a narrow hallway when it's still reasonably dark, with a watermelon stuffed up their shirt, while still being half asleep then said person would know that you don't get to the bathroom quickly. Sara got about halfway there before she felt the warm trickle of liquid running down her leg and cursed under her breath. But she continued on her way, cleaned herself up, and then return to her and Leonard's room where she changed her pants as well as her underwear.

She went back to sleep and awoke two hours later alone in bed with the smell of coffee wafting in from the kitchen. It brought a smile to her face to know that Leonard was cooking breakfast, although the scent of coffee did churn her stomach just a tad because it isn't exactly the best thing for the baby. But her doctor had assured her long ago that drinking one cup a day was perfectly fine, so she had pretty much told the baby to deal with it because "mommy isn't fun to be around when she hasn't had coffee or tea, and daddy doesn't like her kind of tea."

As if knowing she was going to drink her coffee despite protests her stomach quickly settled down and so Sara got up and made her way into the kitchen where, sure enough, Leonard was setting pancakes onto a plate.

"Morning," he greeted her as she came in.

"Morning," She said back as she took her seat on the barstool at the counter. She had given up on trying to eat at the counter weeks ago, after she bonked her belly against it for the second time. She had pretty much been eating either standing up or sitting sideways with her plate on her lap, depending on what she was eating. But for the past week or so she had noticed that setting the plate on her lap was physically not going to work anymore and had been getting away with standing up. Pancakes though, pancakes were going to be a challenge.

When Leonard turned around to grab the syrup from the cabinet, however, an idea came to her. She slid off her seat and grabbed a pancake from the stack, leaning casually up against the wall as she usually did while she ate it as if it were a cookie.

"What?" She asked when Len started looking at her as if he were debating whether or not to comment at her sudden change in position.

"You're eating a plain pancake." He finally pointed out,

"So?" She asked, "I don't like the syrup."

"Bullshit," He called, "You drown your pancakes in syrup, you also put blueberries on top of them." He continued and Sara just shrugged while taking another bite of her breakfast.

"So maybe I just don't want to do that today, and we don't even have any blueberries." She defended but her boyfriend only gave a sigh.

"Ok I wasn't going to say anything when you stood there holding your bowl of cereal, I looked the other way when you would only eat the chicken wings and drumsticks because those didn't require a plate, and I even kept my mouth shut when your mom brought over that roast beef and you turned your serving into a sandwich, but this whole not sitting down thing is getting a little ridiculous." He lectured, confirming her suspicions that she hadn't been fooling him at all and he knew exactly what she was doing.

"Well what do you want me to do?" She asked,

"You know those barstools adjust right?" He asked back and she just looked at him. He was trying to stifle a snicker because he had figured out over a week ago that the information was lost on her. "I can make that thing shorter so that the edge of the countertop is harmlessly between your stomach and your chest, might even let your feet touch the ground too." He continued and it was a good thirty seconds before Sara responded.

"You know, I'm not sure what's worse; that crack about my height or the fact that you let me go two weeks without syrup on my pancakes before telling me this." She said sarcastically and Len snickered before moving to adjust his girlfriend's seat.

"I was planning on letting you go one more, but I didn't feel like going to buy donuts this morning." He told her and she just smiled in annoyance.

Len adjusted the seat, which allowed Sara to sit properly at the counter again and eat her breakfast like a normal human being.

"So now that the baby shower is over, what do we still need to get?" Len asked as he too sat down and handed his girlfriend the maple syrup while she thought on the question.

"The high chair is the only thing I can think of off hand, and we don't need to worry about that right away." She replied, knowing that for a while the baby would be too small to use a highchair and so there wasn't a huge rush on that particular item.

"What about bottles?" Leonard asked, knowing very well what conversation he was really about to unleash. "Should we stock up on those right from the start or can those wait a few weeks?"

"Felicity gave me a few yesterday," Sara said before taking another bite of her breakfast and swallowing before she continued. "We should probably get a few more for the beginning, but I wouldn't rush it because I think I'm going to at least try breastfeeding it." She said and Len smirked at the proud smile she was giving him before picking some more at his breakfast. "Donna and my dad picked a date for the wedding," Sara informed him.

"Oh yeah?" He asked and she nodded,

"May 27th, they're not sending out invitations since it's just going to be their kids, so write it down." She said and he sighed.

"I take it this means I have to go?" He all but whined and now it was Sara's turn to smirk at him.

"Yes," she confirmed, "If I have to go then so do you." She mocked and Len just smirked before he got up and placed his plate in the sink.

"I've got a job today, I'll be back later." He promised, giving Sara a gentle kiss before heading out to leave.

"Bye," she said as he headed for the door.  
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Len was still gone when Sara had decided to continue the work they had started last night on the nursery. She noticed that the mattress inside of the crib was bare; they had decided that although the baby would probably be fine if they put a crib bumper and one blanket in there it still wasn't worth the risk of it accidently suffocating itself and so they had decided to leave the crib empty. But apparently Leonard had forgotten that despite that they also agreed to cover the mattress with a padded mattress bag, because quite frankly the mattress they had is hard as a rock. So she thought she would take the mattress out and cover it herself, but that clearly wasn't happening.

Apparently the safety codes for cribs have been updated a lot since the last time Sara was around one and it's now unsafe to have bars that drop down. This meant that she had to lean all the way over in order to even attempt pulling the mattress out but she didn't even get that far. She may have a stubborn ass but she also has a fully functioning brain and so when the first attempt showed her that while she may not quite be at the point of being unable to bend over, bending over the edge of something is pretty much out of the question.

"Fine," she huffed as she stood straight again, ok she did try it a second time but she stopped when the baby gave a harsh kick in protest, strong enough to even make Sara wince a little bit. "But you're the one sleeping on it so don't complain when it's the most uncomfortable bed in the world." She said and at that the baby gave another strong kick as if telling her it was going to complain. "Alright, I'll have daddy fix it later." She muttered whilst rubbing her hand over the spot where she had felt the last kick.

The baby kicked one more time after that, not as hard but still hard enough to be felt. Sara instead went about putting some of the little toys she had gotten yesterday on shelves and put away the rest of the clothes. She then started looking through a bag of things that she and Leonard and bought. They couldn't paint the walls of the nursery but they could put up some of those special wall stickers. They had gotten a bunch of little ones, mostly animals like monkeys or other zoo animals. They had also gotten a mobile to hang over the crib with similar animals on it, despite how much Sara had sworn throughout her life that her future child would never have a zoo themed nursery it seems that there are very limited options when you choose not to know what you're having.

Anyway, she got a lot of things put away and was just finishing up when she heard a knock at the front door. Odd considering Lisa normally just lets herself in; they had finally given her a key. Sara figured that maybe it was her mother with the stroller, but when she opened the door she found Laurel on the other side.

"Hey," Laurel greeted her sister.

"Hey," Sara said in surprise, "I thought you went back to Star City last night?" She asked but Laurel rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I stayed to help mom clean up after the party and lost track of time, missed my train home and couldn't get another until tonight so I stayed with mom." She explained, "Anyway mom sent me over with the bassinette and the stroller," she explained and Sara laughed.

"Well we're going to have to call Lisa for help because those boxes are too heavy for just you and I've been sidelined from that kind of lifting for a few more months." She said and Laurel smirked as her sister let her inside.

"How are you doing with that?" She asked, "I didn't want to ask you yesterday but I've never known you to sit on the sidelines." She mocked as the two of them went over to sit on the couch.

"Didn't stop Donna," she mused, "She was talking to me and Felicity about getting bridesmaid dresses and I'm kind of a problem because by the time the wedding comes around I should be smaller than I am now, but we all know I won't be as small as I was before so really the whole measurement thing is tricky." She huffed and Laurel sighed with sympathy for her sister.

Growing up neither of them ever had any particularly serious body image issues, something they were both grateful for considering when and where they grew up. But she never thought that maybe they weren't totally out of that phase of life, and that they might not be totally in the clear.

"So what did you do?" She finally asked as Sara just shrugged,

"Put down all my old measurements and added two sizes, figure by May I might be around there." She replied and Laurel nodded, not too worried about her sister because she knows that Sara will be just fine after the baby comes, especially since most of her baby weight seemed to be on her stomach as opposed to her hips and from what Laurel has heard at least that made losing baby weight easier.

"Sounds like a good plan, but please don't worry about it." She said and Sara nodded.

"I'm not," she admitted, "I'm really not but I'm afraid that I will because, well I'm used to be the smallest out of almost anybody and now…" she trailed off and so Laurel smiled, placing her hand over Sara's where she had subconsciously rested it on her stomach.

"Now you are just a few months away from becoming an amazing mother." She said and Sara beamed at the words with pride that she just couldn't help, and that only grew when she felt her baby kick right next to her and Laurel's hands as if it was searching for them.

Laurel felt it too, the second time when the kick just barely found the tip of her finger, and her face lit up ecstatically.

"Was that?" She asked and Sara nodded with a smirk.

"Yup," she answered her sister.  
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Len didn't get back until around seven at night. Today's job was long and complicated thanks to a smartass squirrel and the dumbass owner of the building refusing to call an exterminator. Of course his prison buddy being an even bigger dumbass didn't help much. That moron got what he deserved when the thing finally bit him and sent him to the hospital; they're just lucky it wasn't rabid.

Anyway, when he got home Sara was standing by the counter with a bowl of ice cream and a paper towel that she was using in place of a cutting board.

"I thought you said eating pickles and ice cream would mean you had a psychological problem?" He asked skeptically when he realized what she was cutting and what she was doing with it.

"Let the record show I'm not eating it because of some weird craving, I'm just really curious as to what it tastes like." She defended before dropping a few of her pickle slices into her bowl of strawberry ice cream. Leonard continued to eye her with a look of doubt until she hesitantly put a spoonful in her mouth and immediately scrunched up her nose in distaste.

"What's the verdict?" He asked and Sara just spun around, opened the trash, and all but threw up.

"Terrible," she replied, spitting again and again into the garbage until her mouth was dry. She then let out a frustrated groan before going into the living room and slowly lowering herself onto the couch, she wanted to just flop down but that isn't much of an option these days.

"Rough day?" Len asked, following her and settling himself on the foot of the couch, picking up Sara's feet before setting them on his lap.

"More or less," she groaned, "You need to put the mattress bag on the crib's mattress by the way, I tired but…" she didn't bother finishing, just gestured to her stomach and Len chuckled as he began rubbing her feet.

"These next two and a half months are going to be hell for both of us, aren't they?" He teased and she nodded,

"But I'll try and go easy on you if you keep rubbing my feet like that," she bargained, emitting a small moan of pleasure as if to prove her point.

"I'll keep that in mind," Len joked and Sara smirked,

"Laurel missed her train last night and ended up staying with mom, she and Lisa brought over the bassinette and the stroller, we left them in the nursery." She informed her boyfriend who nodded at the information. "How was your day?" She asked and although he sighed it was a sigh of amusement.

"Interesting," he said,

"Oh yeah, how so?" Sara asked; her curiosity peaked.

"Well I spent most of my day trying to lure a squirrel out of an air duct until my partner got fed up and climbed in after it, would've been home two hours ago if I didn't have to bring him to the hospital." He told her and she burst out laughing.

"Do you have any normal friends?" She finally asked,

"Do you?" Len countered and Sara only laughed again.

"Touché," she said and Len smirked.

"Hey, can you do me a favor?" Sara suddenly asked,

"Sure, what is it?" Len asked and he saw her smile with embarrassment.

"Can you get me some water so I can wash the taste of pickles and ice cream out of my mouth?" She requested and so with a smirk Leonard dropped her feet and stood up, making his way to the kitchen.

They both knew that these next few weeks were going to be the hardest out of the whole pregnancy, but they could make it. Besides, once it was over they would have the best reward that either of them could've ever asked for.


	22. Put a Label on It

"Hey," Cisco greeted when Lisa came into work the Monday after the baby shower, which was the last time he had seen her.

"Hey," She echoed with her usual smile, not seeming to notice how nervous he was.

Caitlin had already gotten here earlier but she had just gone to a room down the hall.

"Um, here." He stuttered before pulling a few crumpled up dollar bills from his pocket. "It's gas money, for Saturday." He explained when Lisa looked as if she were very confused.

"Gas money? What are we sixteen?" She mocked and so with an embarrassed frown Cisco put his money back into his pocket.

"Well um, maybe I could buy you coffee sometime or something?" He suggested and at this point Lisa realized what was going on.

"Um…" She trailed off, her heart suddenly stopping in her chest and her breath hitching in her throat. "As friends? Or like as a date?" She asked skeptically, although knew exactly how he meant it.

"Doesn't matter," he said with a shrug,

"Uh…" Lisa began to stutter when Caitlin came back.

"Hey Lisa," she said as she entered,

"Hey Caitlin," Lisa replied as if she hadn't just been, sort of, talking to Cisco and she never returned to the conversation. Instead she just got started on her work for the day.  
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"Ok, run that by me again?" Sara asked of Cisco, she had been at the lab for all of two minutes before the resident engineer pulled her aside and started babbling about Lisa.

"I asked Lisa out-"

"You asked Lisa out?" The blonde gasped in surprise that Cisco had finally stopped dragging his feet.

"Yes! Were you listening at all just now?" He demanded,

"Not really," Sara admitted, "Sorry but it is nine in the morning and I'm still half asleep," She excused, to be honest she hadn't been listening to Cisco because she was thinking about the fact that she needs to call her doctor and confirm her next appointment, what was that thing about pregnancy brain she saw somewhere?

"Yes I asked Lisa out," Cisco repeated, drawing her back to reality once again. "I just asked about going and getting coffee sometime and she jut froze up. Like I thought if either of us was going to freeze up like that it would be me, but she just looked like she was trying to find the nicest way to say no." He vented and that confused Sara as much as Cisco, because Lisa's giant crush on him is no secret.

"Alright, I'll talk to her." Sara said, moving to head into the main room of the labs but Cisco stepped in front of her and refused to let her pass just yet.

"Wait," he ordered,

"What?" She asked and he sighed nervously.

"What are you going to say?" He questioned,

"Lisa's my best friend, relax." She instructed him and so with a sigh he let Sara go in and made his own way down the hall to his workshop.

Sara spotted Lisa over at one of the computers, scanning through some mug shots and security footage, trying to match the face of Central City's latest meta-human attacker.

"Why are most meta-human's criminals?" She asked just as her blonde friend claimed the seat next to her. "I mean seriously, whatever happened to all the kids who wanted to grow up and be superheroes?" She asked and Sara chuckled.

"You know sometimes I wonder if any kids were affected by the particle accelerator. If there's some little kid flying around his bedroom or turning invisible." She mused and that made Lisa laugh too.

"Let's just hope the powers aren't hereditary, because Barry will probably have kids one day and if they inherit his speed." She mused and Sara smirked before moving onto why she was here.

"So I heard Cisco asked you out," she began and Lisa sighed. "I also heard you said no?" She asked,

"I did not say no," Lisa quickly defended, "I just didn't yes either." She admitted with a sad and regretful face.

"Why not?" Sara pressed and Lisa sighed.

"I know he's a good guy, and I like him a lot." She admitted, "But people like me, good things don't happen to us." She said with a shake of her head. "I've been with enough guys to know that most will leave in the middle of the night, and the good ones... well the good one deserve better than me, and sooner or later they figure that out." She explained and Sara could do nothing but look at her in sympathy at first.

"Lisa," She finally said in a stern voice, prompting the other woman to look her in the eyes. "Do you hear yourself?" She asked and with a small and sad laugh Lisa nodded. "Then you know you sound crazy," Sara continued and Lisa laughed again.

"I don't want to lose him," she confessed but Sara just cracked a grin.

"You won't, not over coffee anyway." She said and her friend smiled, "Go, before you talk yourself out of it." She instructed and so with a smile and a nod Lisa stood up and headed for Cisco's lab.  
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"So let me get this straight," Len began after Sara told him about what happened at work this morning while the two of them flipped mindlessly through the channels that night. "Cisco finally asked Lisa out, and she said no?" He questioned in shock.

"At first," Sara reminded him, "She changed her mind later and they're out right now." She continued and Len rolled his eyes, causing Sara to smirk.

"You knew it was going to happen," She taunted but her boyfriend only groaned,

"I know," He huffed, "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to kill him if he does something stupid." He warned and Sara just fixed him with a glare.

"He's Cisco," She reminded him,

"I mean exceptionally stupid," Len clarified, Cisco may be a mathematical genius but when it comes to dating he doubted the man was very tactful.

Sara rolled her eyes but chose to let the matter go, they had something a little more concerning than Lisa's love life that they had been discussing before deciding that they were utterly stumped and needed to talk about something else for a minute or two.

"Whatever," she muttered with a small hint of amusement in her voice. "What were we on?"

"Um…" Leonard hummed thoughtfully, "Boy." He finally settled on, fairly certain that was where they had left off their previous conversation.

"Hm… Well even though Mick didn't stay dead, should we still go with that for the middle name?" She asked, after she had called and confirmed her next doctor's appointment the two of them had realized that she was already into her third and last trimester and they were still yet to decide on what to actually call the baby once it got here. So for the past twenty minutes they had been sitting on the couch and tossing some names back and forth while looking for something to watch and distract themselves; but of course nothing was on tonight.

"Do you want to?" Len asked after thinking about the notion and Sara shrugged,

"I mean, he is your partner and I don't think it's any secret that he's one of my best friends too. Besides, you already said he wouldn't want the baby to share his first name." She said and Len nodded.

"Right, and what about that little girl's father?" He asked, "He named his daughter after you," He suggested but Sara scrunched up her nose at the suggestion, not because it was a bad one, the opposite actually.

"I know but John is too common of a name," She groaned and Len nodded in agreement, he kind of liked the name but at the same time he couldn't argue with Sara's logic.

"Alright, how about we stop thinking of people we should name it after and just think of some names that we like?" He suggested and Sara nodded at the idea.

"Still thinking for a boy?" She asked and Leonard shrugged.

"Either or," He decided and Sara nodded.

"Ok um… Isabelle for a girl?" She suggested and Len turned the idea around once or twice in his head.

"That's a good one, what about Carmen?" He suggested and Sara nodded,

"I like that one," she agreed, "Jamie? Boy or girl?" She suggested and Len nodded,

"What about Austin for a boy?" He suggested but Sara shook her head,

"Sorry but I've never like that name," she told him, "Ok, I know we're not supposed to be thinking of people we could name it after, but my friend Tommy died while I was in the league." She continued and Len thought on it for a minute.

"Tommy's not bad for a boy," he admitted before he sighed. "But there is one name we need to pick regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl." He said and now it was Sara's turn to sigh, they both knew this conversation was inevitable.

"Lance or Snart," she stated and Len nodded,

"Which do you think?" He asked and this is what Sara had been dreading, because she knew Leonard was going to be against her answer.

"I would rather it have your last name," she confessed and he raised an eyebrow at her. "I know, I know, you don't want our kid carrying on a name associated with your father-"

"You're right," he interrupted her.

"But that name also belongs to you and Lisa, and you two are heroes." She said,

"You know I hate that word," Len whined and his girlfriend smirked in amusement at his denial of what he is.

"Besides, it also belonged to your grandfather, and I know you loved him." She reminded him and he couldn't deny that one. "Your father was a bad person Leonard, but that name isn't just his. There is a lot more good behind that name then there is bad." She told him and he took a minute to mull over what she had suggested before he eyed her skeptically.

"You don't even want to hyphenate our last names'?" He asked and Sara shook her head.

"I hate hyphenated names," she confessed and so Len smiled acceptingly.

"Baby Snart it is, at least until I figure out a way to change your mind." He warned but she only laughed.

"Not a chance crook," she teased before pulling him in for a kiss.  
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Meanwhile, halfway across town, Lisa and Cisco were seated in a booth down at Saints and Sinners because both of them had agreed that they didn't want to go for coffee at eight o'clock at night. They were having a fairly good time, and Lisa couldn't stop laughing at how adorable Cisco looked with a mustache made of mustard painting his upper lip despite the fact that it was long gone by now. They had mostly skipped the usual small talk of a first date; the standard asking about your date's day was out considering they work together and therefor had had the same type of day. Lisa had asked Cisco about his family and he told her that he has a rough relationship with just about everyone he's related to, although he is trying to work on things with his brother. He had the common sense not to ask about her family, which she was beyond thankful for.

"Ok, I've got to ask," He finally said after the two of them had been laughing at his mustard issue for long enough. "What happened to your motorcycle?" He questioned and Lisa chuckled out of what was obviously embarrassment.

"I traded it in," She admitted, "That plus some cash was enough for a down-payment on that crappy excuse for a car I have now." She explained,

"I know but why?" He asked and again Lisa looked away in embarrassment.

"When Lenny and Sara told me she was pregnant, Lenny said he'd be calling me to babysit a lot. He was joking but at the same time he was serious, and I figure I probably can't strap a baby to the back of my bike." She said and now most of the teasing was gone from Cisco's face.

"Wait, so you getting an apartment around the time those two came back from their mission really wasn't a coincidence? You settled down so you would be able to be around to help your brother?" He asked and upon hearing it put so bluntly Lisa blushed.

"Kind of sounds pathetic when you put it that way," she said but Cisco shook his head.

"I actually thought it sounded like you really love your brother," he defended and Lisa smiled.

"Well he did raise me, at the very least I own him." She excused but Cisco frowned,

"You don't owe your brother anything, and I know that's not why you're helping him." He said but Lisa just looked away as he thought on the situation for a minute, and then arrived at a realization. "Lisa, it's not weakness to love people." He told her bluntly, "It's not a bad thing to love your niece or nephew and it's not a bad thing to do things out of the goodness of your heart." He explained and for a minute Lisa seemed shocked that he figured her out.

"I know," she finally admitted, stirring her drink as a way to distract herself. "It's just a little strange, I grew up spending every day wondering how much longer I could get away with the excuses I had for why I was always hurt, or late, or sick, or whatever. And now, all of a sudden, I live in my own apartment and I have a job, my brother is happy and they have a baby on the way; I have the normal life I always dreamed about." She admitted and Cisco cracked an amused grin.

"You mean aside from the fact that the job you mention involves catching meta-humans?" He asked and they both laughed.

"Ok, relatively normal." She amended as they laughed,

"So what's better?" Cisco asked seriously after the laughter slowed, "Being a criminal or being one of the good guys?" He asked and his date smirked,

"The good guys," she answered confidently.

In truth, this is the life she had always dreamed of. She had always wanted to be part of a close family, and Sara has made it very clear by now that she is. It's no secret that she's had a huge crush on Cisco ever since they met, and now she's actually on a date with him. It had taken the better part of thirty-five years, but now, finally, life was looking up for Lisa Snart.  
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After they finally found Jumanji airing on one of the movie networks Sara and Leonard's conversation about a name for their baby slowly came to an end as they started watching the movie and Sara eventually fell asleep. Len smirked down at the sight, knowing full well that it was the baby making her this exhausted because a pre-pregnancy Sara Lance never would've allowed herself to fall asleep with something as loud as the TV blaring in the background. Not that the TV was very loud, heck Leonard could barely hear it. But he knew that there had been a time when, thanks to her assassin training, any noise had been enough to keep Sara awake. They weren't together when they had been on the Waverider, but he could still remember a few mornings in which she would drag herself into the kitchen looking like she hadn't slept at all, only to reveal that she hadn't because of some small noise like the humming of the ship's systems or something like that.

Now though, now she could probably fall asleep anywhere so long as she was tired enough. With a smirk Len pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and did a mental recap of the names they had narrowed their choices down to.

For a boy they had come up with Tommy, Jamie, Alexander, Nicholas, Hunter, or John. Although Leonard was pretty sure that last one was going to end up vetoed and Sara had only agreed to consider it because her friend had given his daughter her name. Len wasn't a huge fan of Hunter, but Sara had argued that without Rip they would've never even met so apparently their former leader is in fact good for something.

For a girl they had narrowed it down it Carmen, Jamie, Mikayla, Aurora, Lauren, Abigail, or Lilly. It was much easier to come up with girl names, but probably because there just seems to be a lot more of those.

They had a few other options, but those were being strictly reserved for the slot of middle name. The only thing they had actually decided on was that the baby's last name would be Snart, and secretly, Leonard was glad.

At first he hadn't wanted it, but then he realized that Sara was right. His dad was just one person, and he is not going to let his deceased father be the reason that his child didn't share his last name. In fact he was hoping that the baby might not be the only one to take his last time in the foreseeable future. They were yet to discuss the idea, the last conversation that was even remotely close having taken place way back on the Waverider when Sara was only about two months along, but maybe if he was lucky and played his cards right Sara too would want to take his name someday.


	23. Place Your Bets

It is very rare that every member of every team of heroes has the very same thought on a situation, and when they do then it's a pretty safe bet that they're right. The rare thought in question?

"This is going to be a disaster."

Now to be fair some do have more faith than others in the plan for the three teams to spend the Thanksgiving holiday together. Ray, for example, can't wait to go to Central City 2016 for the holiday (the Waverider crew has started using a calendar set to their own present so that they know exactly how long they have been gone every time they visit) while Cisco is sure that even with three teams of superheroes it can't possibly be more dysfunctional than his family gathering for the holiday. Then there are people like Rip and Len, who are both hoping that they can simply make it through the holiday without something setting on fire or any other great disaster. At first they had thought the idea to gather all three teams for Thanksgiving was absurd because who in the hell would be crazy enough to host that?

Apparently, Joe West.

For years, holiday's in the West household was just Joe, Iris, and Barry. They had no extended family and that was something that Iris knew her father wished were different. He had always opened their home to her and Barry's friends, and when the two of them went off to college he made it very clear that if for whatever reason a friend couldn't make it home for a holiday they were more than welcome at the West home. But still, even the two children he had raised were surprised when he volunteered to do Thanksgiving. Sure team Flash had joined them for both Thanksgiving and Christmas these past few years, but this was a whole knew level of crazy.

"Dad, are you sure you want to do this?" Iris asked as she went about peeling carrots for dinner while her father cut up some potatoes.

"Yes," He said defensively for what must have been the hundredth time in the past two weeks. "Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time when you get together with family that you never get to see otherwise, and no offense sweetie but I see you, Barry, and Wally everyday of my life." He continued,

"Yeah but all three hero teams?" Barry asked skeptically as he entered the kitchen, "I mean based on what Sara's said dinner with just her parents is a disaster in itself, but we're adding a bunch of vigilantes and time masters to the mix." He reminded,

"Ok I'll admit it, it's crazy. But do you guys really want to spend Thanksgiving without them?" Joe asked and both Barry and Iris shook their heads, they very much wanted to spend the holiday with everyone but at the same time they knew the idea was more than a little crazy.  
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"This is completely insane," Leonard deadpanned as he and Sara got ready to go over to Barry's place for Thanksgiving.

"No, what's insane is that they invited my mom. My parents haven't spent Thanksgiving together in almost ten years and now they'll be spending it not only together but also with his fiancée." Sara said and Len all but groaned at the thought, he had been so preoccupied by the idea of spending the holiday with Barry Allen and Raymond in the same room that he had completely forgotten about Sara's father.

"It's not going to help that you haven't seen your father since we told him you're pregnant," he mumbled and Sara huffed at the reminder.

"I've sent him some pictures, and I know Laurel's shown him a few." She muttered, knowing that probably wasn't going to make things any better. "But aside from Kendra I also haven't seen the team since I was two months and they don't exactly have filters." She continued, ever since they all decided to get together for Thanksgiving Sara had dreaded seeing the team again considering she obviously looks a lot different from the last time they saw her.

"We don't have to go," Len reminded her as he picked up his jacket. "If you want we can just stay here and have our own little Thanksgiving," he suggested but Sara shook her head.

"No I want to go," She assured him, and judging by the look in her eye she really did, she was just nervous about making it through the first ten minutes or so.  
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"What does he think we're going to do?" Ray asked Mick as the entire team was getting ready to head over to the West's house for Thanksgiving diner. He and everyone else on the team had just received a group text from Snart, the message containing a recent picture of Sara and the words "Sara's worried about the stupid comments you'll have once you see her, so get it out of your systems now!"

"Most of us, probably nothing. You, you'll put your foot so far down your throat even that doctor friend of Allen's won't be able to get it out." Mick remarked upon seeing the text. He knew his buddy was sending this warning for good reason, the last time any of them had seen Sara she was only two months along and hadn't even started to show. But in this picture here she looked like she had shoved a kickball or something up her shirt.

"I'm not that stupid," Ray defended and Mick raised an eyebrow before turning away whilst shaking his head.

"Let's just get going," he grumbled, marching off in search of their captain to see if he was ready.  
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So far, everyone had been gathered in the same house for Thanksgiving dinner and no one was dead, and with this group that really is quite an accomplishment. So Len knew he was risking this fact when he went and sought out Quentin Lance of all people, but it had to be done.

"If I ask to talk to you, are you going to murder me?" He asked, gaining the other man's attention as he approached.

At first Lance looked dumbfounded, as though his younger daughter's boyfriend was the absolute last person he ever thought would want to speak with him, and maybe that's because he was.

"No," He finally agreed after a minute or two of silence, "In fact I wanted to talk with you."

Now that caught Leonard off guard, but regardless he followed Lance out the front door and took a seat beside him on the steps of the front porch.

Both men were quiet at first, each waiting for the other to crack first and start this conversation.

"I owe you an apology," Quentin finally voiced, "I didn't give you a fair chance after I found out about your record, and that wasn't right. If I didn't know Sara and just saw her record… well I don't even want to think about what I'd write her off as." He admitted, ashamed at even the mere thought of what his opinion of Sara would be if it were based solely on her record.

"Apology accepted," Len said once it became clear that Lance wasn't entirely comfortable with continuing. "Now, running the risk of motivating you to revoke that, I have a question for you." He began, gaining Quentin's full attention.  
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"So it's official?" Sara asked excitedly after Kendra and Carter announced that they were engaged. At first she had been nervous, because just before they made the announcement she had caught sight of her father and her boyfriend coming inside the house. But neither of them looked to be physically damaged so when Carter called for everyone's attention she allowed herself to become distracted.

"Yup," Kendra replied, equally as excited as she showed Sara and Thea her ring.

"Nice," Thea commented before turning to Roy, who was looking over her shoulder. "Are you ever going to get me one of those?" She asked teasingly but Roy just shrugged.

"I was planning to wait another year or two, you have other plans?" He asked and honestly he couldn't help but smile when his girlfriend's face changed from teasing to a strange cross between amusement and shock.

"Just a warning Roy, you might want to talk to Oliver about those plans." Laurel advised, coming up behind Roy and giggling in amusement when she came around and saw his suddenly terrified face.  
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Dinner went off fairly well, but after dinner when everyone was scattered between the living room and the kitchen was when Sara started wishing she had taken Snart up on his offer to skip the big family party and just do their own little thing, because she should've known her mother would be insistent on bringing back an almost forgotten family tradition.

The baby pool.

Way back when Laurel was on the way, Dinah's parents had decided to run a betting pool at her baby shower and the tradition had carried over to her pregnancy with Sara. She set up a pool when Moira was expecting Thea, and clearly she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to start the betting again after twenty-one years of no knew children coming into the family or families of close friends.

The rules were simple; anyone could bet, even the expectant parents, and in order to bet you had to give at least a dollar to the pot. The bets were all based on the date you predicted for the baby's birth, and if two people bet the same day then they settled it by betting on what the baby would weigh.

"Are we really doing this?" Sara protested from her seat on the couch.

"You don't have to bet if you don't want to," Laurel reminded her sister from where she sat across from her.

"Oh I'm betting," Sara assured her, suddenly changing her attitude about the pool. "After everything this kid has put me through, I can at least make some money off it." She continued and her mother smiled at her while putting the finishing touches on her hand-drawn calendar.

"Ok, who wants to start?" She asked and there was a long pause of silence. "Ok… I'll start. I will place my bet under… December 21st." She decided; penciling down her name and placing her dollar in the plastic bowl they were using for the money.

"Actually, pencil me down for that day too." Caitlin spoke up and Dinah did as she asked,

"We'll go through who needs to settle with weights later," the older woman decided, knowing that this was going to take awhile.

"Well I'll be nice and place my bet for Sara's due date," Len spoke up and Sara looked at him with a look that clearly expressed how she thought he was crazy.

"You're usually a better gambler than that?" She reminded him, her tone asking why he would make such a safe and yet unsafe bet.

"But you're better, so I'm counting on you to win." He teased her with a mischievous smirk and she only rolled her eyes.

"Sara was born a few days early, give me the seventeenth." Laurel cut in as she placed her money in the pot.

"But according to our grandfather, Lenny was born two weeks late; I'll take the 26th." Lisa voiced, earning a glare from Sara.

"I hate you," she said to her friend but the brunette only smirked.

"At least she only bet one week out," Cisco said in defense of his girlfriend, though he started to regret it when Sara fixed her glare on him instead. "I'll take the fifteenth," he quickly said to Dinah. He highly doubted that the baby would be born four days early, but the sooner it came the sooner Sara would stop looking at him as if she wanted to kill him for not letting her kill Lisa.

"I'll bet on Christmas," Ray spoke up, unaware of the issues Sara would have with such a date, and her glare quickly spun over to him.

"I hate you more," she decided and he while shrugged, his wide eyes made it obvious that he didn't understand why his ex-teammate would suddenly hate him for betting on such a date.

"I don't suppose Rex let any information slip to anyone before he ditched us?" Jax asked and the other Legends all shook their heads.

"Didn't even let me see anything in the future," Mick grumbled in annoyance.

"I'll bet on the 22nd," Clairissa Stein said as her husband and his friends argued about their recently missing teammate.

"Me too," Lyla Diggle seconded.

"You got any information Hunter?" Mick questioned, not happy at all with the idea of betting blindly.

Rip scoffed at the notion, "In the original timeline Miss Lance and Mr. Snart only ever met once, and said meeting didn't result in a child together." He said and this drew everyone's attention, particularly Sara and Leonard's.

"What?" Sara asked, she knew very well that she hadn't met Snart until Rip knocked the two of them out along with the other Legends and brought them all to that rooftop. She also knew that in the original timeline she was destined to die along with her father and sister back in April, leaving her window of opportunity to meet Snart very small.

"What? You're a former vigilante and criminal, is it really that surprising that even without my interference you would've crossed paths?" The time captain inquired and the others nodded acceptingly, knowing that he wouldn't give them any more details than that.  
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"So who do you think is going to win?" Leonard asked later that night as he and Sara were driving back to their apartment.

"Well hopefully not Carter who went all the way to the 29th," Sara joked, they had asked him why he was placing his bet so far out and he had responded with, "I have over 4,000 years worth of memories and you and Snart are still two of the most stubborn people I've ever met, so I'm betting your kid will be just as stubborn." The fact that, according to Lisa, Len had been born two weeks late did not help the argument against it. "Who do you think will win?" She asked and Len thought on it for a moment.

"I think Mick was smart going for the 23rd," he admitted, "The doctor did say that it's common to deliver late the first time, and I doubt you would go later than four days." He explained and Sara nodded.

"Well I hope I don't go four days late, or late at all for that matter." She muttered and Len snickered, it was no secret that at eight months pregnant (although technically she was 36 weeks and therefor going on nine) she was pretty much over the whole thing and just wanted the baby out of her already. They both knew that hard as the third trimester had been so far, and really it had only been more annoying than it had been hard, this coming month was going to be the worst of all.  
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Boy were they right.

About a week and a half after Thanksgiving, and after roughly five weeks of trying to talk her into doing it sooner, Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin finally forced Sara to leave work. Her doctor had ordered her to go on bed rest right after Thanksgiving but everyone knew that wasn't going to happen. For the most part everyone had let her go about her usual life, but now that she was due in just two weeks Caitlin put her foot down and told her that she needed to be at home resting and getting ready for the baby.

This, obviously, did not go over well with Sara. But eventually she relented when Len promised to play cards with her whenever he wasn't at work, and considering he works by appointment they did manage to get a few games in. But there was one day when he came home around lunchtime and when he found no sight of his girlfriend in the living room he went and checked the bedroom. Sure enough he found her there, laying on her side on the bed but wide awake. Her eyes were distant as if she were lost in thought and her hand was caressing soft strokes over her large belly and for a moment Len wasn't sure she even knew he was there.

"I'm getting nervous," she finally admitted, so she did know he was there.

"About the baby?" He asked, making his way into the room as she nodded.

"I can still feel it kicking up by my ribs," she confessed as he made his way onto the bed and took a seat behind her before proceeding to help her ease up into a sitting position and lean against him.

"Although I can't imagine that being comfortable, why is it making you nervous?" He asked as she settled against him and let out a sigh.

"Because it's supposed to drop down into my pelvis two or three weeks before it's born, I'm due in less than two weeks and it's still up here." She explained, rubbing her hand over the very top of her bump to show exactly where the baby's kicks were landing.

"So, looks like it might come late?" Len asked once he understood and Sara nodded,

"Unless it drops down sometime in the next two days or something, and even then I don't know if it'll come on my due date." She explained and Len sighed as he thought through what he could say to cheer her up. He had nothing and so he just pressed a kiss to her temple.  
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It was late that night, Len had been asleep but he woke up for no reason and now he just couldn't fall back asleep. Next to him Sara was still sleeping soundly, something he knew was becoming rarer and rarer for her. She'd been having trouble getting comfortable enough to fall asleep a lot lately, not that he could blame her. She slept on her side and half on top of one of those body pillows, elevated in a way that it looked like she was partially sitting up.

Len put his hand on her stomach, knowing it wouldn't wake her because he does this all the time when she's sleeping. However, unlike usual, the second he set his hand down he was greeted with a powerful kick from his child followed by another almost immediately. He lowered himself carefully further down the bed, as so not to wake Sara, before his face was directly in front of her stomach.

"Shh, settle down in there." He whispered to the bump as he kept his hand moving in a steady pattern over it. Sara's shirt was riding up just enough to expose a fair amount of her stretched skin and through it Len swore he could see the shape of her stomach distinctly change. They had seen this a couple times over the last four months or so, although Sara often looked away because apparently no one ever bothered to tell her that seeing the baby move inside her could be a thing that happened and so the first time that it did it freaked her out.

Anyway, between being able to see and feel the baby moving Len determined that it was wide awake and going crazy in there.

"Settle down, your mom needs some sleep and you're going to wake her up." He whispered, still rubbing Sara's belly as if the action could sooth the baby to sleep. "You need some sleep too, because everyone out here is excited to meet you so I'm sure you'll have an eventful first couple days." He said and he actually started to feel the movements against his hand grow fewer and farther between, not to mention he'd lost all visible sight of them. "Look," he said with a sigh, "Mom and I aren't exactly the storybook family a lot of kids come from, but I never want you to doubt our reasons for being together. You're a big part of it, but I started falling in love with your mother long before you were on the way." He confessed and upon hearing that Sara couldn't pretend to be asleep anymore.

"When was that?" She asked and Len looked up in surprise,

"I wake you?" He asked and she shrugged.

"Not sure," she admitted, "It was either you or the baby dropping, but probably the baby." She said and her smile only grew at the sight of Len's face as he finally realized that his hand was resting far closer to Sara's bellybutton than to the area she had gestured to earlier today. "So, when did you start to have feelings for me?" She asked as her boyfriend moved back up towards his pillow so that he could look her in the eyes.

"1975, after you snapped that guy's wrist when he tried to get into your pants." He confessed and Sara giggled. "What about you?" He asked, "Did your feelings for me start before or after I impregnated you?"

"Before," she replied, "After Russia I started to think I might have a little bit of a crush on you, and then after I was left in 1958 and rejoined the league, even when I was practically brainwashed, how much I missed you was my thought every night when I went to sleep." She admitted, "Look I know I played it off as a joke the night I got back, when I asked about getting lucky. But honestly, I had cried over missing you so many times over the past two years that I didn't want to miss my chance to make a move when I got you back. Clearly it didn't go as planned but still, I want you to know that I wasn't asking that night because I was lonely, it was because I had missed you so much." She admitted and honestly Len didn't know what to say to that, so he just leaned over and kissed her.


	24. A Waiting Game

"Are you asleep?" Len asked one night as he and Sara were lying in bed just after the clock struck midnight.

"Of course not," Sara replied and so he rolled over to face her. "I'm too anxious to fall asleep." As previously stated the clock had just struck midnight, meaning that now it was officially December 19th.

Without a word Len placed a hand on Sara's belly and began rubbing it in small circles, continuing to do so even after Sara placed her hand on top of his. They were both silently wondering if this would be their last night spent like this, if in only a few hours their son or daughter would decided that they're ready to join the world and they would find themselves in the hospital.

"What do you think?" Len finally asked,

"I have no idea," Sara huffed, "Nothing feels any different than the past few weeks-"

"Well it is only two minutes after midnight," Len interrupted and Sara rolled her eyes,

"You know what I mean," she taunted, playfully swatting the back of Leonard's head with her free hand. "The baby has been moving just as much as always, I haven't even felt any of those false contractions, and I have no idea how I would even be able to tell if my cervix started dilating." She listed before eyeing him with a look that said she did actually have one idea, one that Leonard quickly dismissed.

"Sorry darling but I'm not entirely sure I would be able to tell, not as well as a doctor anyway." He told her and she sighed but said nothing else. "Get some sleep," he instructed before leaning over and giving her a light kiss on her temple, "You might end up needing it."

But of course Sara couldn't sleep, any little movement from the baby or pretty much anything else that started to feel even the slightest bit different than usual had her snapping her eyes wide in anticipation that something might happen.  
.  
.  
.

She must have fallen asleep at some point, although she had no idea when, because when the sunlight from outside penetrated through the windows Sara found herself opening her eyes. With a yawn she stretched out her arms but after that she simply continued to lay where she was. Len was nowhere in sight but that wasn't a surprise anymore. Back on the Waverider it had always been either Leonard or herself who was awake first on the team. But ever since somewhere in the middle of her second trimester Len had been managing to get up before Sara every morning, although it was only by about twenty minutes if that.

Since she was alone, although honestly she really wouldn't care if Len caught sight of this, Sara smoothed a hand gently over the stretched fabric her boyfriend's t-shirt, which covered her bump.

"Hey, are you ready to come out?" She asked in a sweet and gentle voice, or as sweet and gentle of a voice as she could manage anyway. "Come on, daddy and I are really excited to actually see you and I promise you'll love it out here, at the very least it has to be more exciting than in there." She half joked and that was when she looked up to see Leonard lounging slumped against the doorframe, an amused smirk spread across his face.

"Trying to bargain with it?" He inquired and with a laugh Sara shrugged,

"You never know, could work." She defended as her boyfriend approached her and then proceeded to sit down beside her.

He just sat there for a minute, that silent smile on his face almost as bright as Sara's. His hand joined hers, rubbing gentle strokes over her rounded tummy as they both thought about how at any minute this part could end and they'd be thrown into the next portion of this insanity; actually raising a kid. It had them both nervous, but then again it would probably have anyone at least a little nervous.

"Nine months ago we still hadn't defeated Savage, and we were on a mission when you fainted." He mused and Sara couldn't help but laugh at the reminder.

"It feels like a lot longer," She replied so of course her boyfriend smirked.

"Well if you want to get technical we were in 1901, so I guess it was 115 years ago." He said and Sara laughed,

"Ok come on, help me get up." She asked and Len smirked, to be fair Sara doesn't exactly need his help getting up but it's either him or the nightstand and frankly he's a lot better at it. So he got up and held out a hand to her, pulling her to her feet.  
.  
.  
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As the rest of the day went by you could've cut the tension in the air of the Snart/Lance apartment with a knife, a very sharp knife. The two of them were practically holding their breath the whole day, at every little thing that happened. Be it a move from the baby, a lack of movement, or any little pain that Sara had in her back. Her mother was texting her every few hours to see if there was any news but alas she always got the same reply from her daughter: nothing. Lisa and Laurel had each sent a text or two but unlike Dinah they took Sara's word for it when she said she would update them on any change, that or they were more confident she would be late. Her father hadn't texted or called at all, but Sara was sure that's only because Laurel was most likely passing information along to him. Anyway the day ended and needless to say Sara was not pleased when she went to bed without even one sign of labor.

When the next morning came things were still that same as they had been yesterday and Sara and Len were eating breakfast at the counter when Len's phone buzzed. He scowled upon picking it up and looking at the text.

"Jim says he needs my help," he told Sara with a frown, referring to the friend that he works with.

"So go," Sara encouraged and Len looked at her as if to argue but she cut him off, "I will call you if something happens, but as of right now this baby isn't going anywhere." She promised and when he still looked skeptical she only rolled her eyes. "If it makes you feel any better I'll call Lisa to come keep me company," she offered,

"That does make me feel better," he admitted before getting up with a sigh and placing his plate in the sink. "Ok fine, but call Lisa." He instructed and with a roll of her eyes Sara pulled out her phone and sent a text to her boyfriend's sister.  
.  
.  
.

"Still nothing?" Lisa asked when she entered her brother's apartment, he was already gone and Sara was sitting on the couch scrolling through something on her iPad.

"Nope," The blonde replied, popping the P as she did. "I'm looking up ways of naturally inducing labor." She said and in response Lisa furrowed her eyebrows.

"You're only a day late," she said but when Sara sent her a glare she immediately realized the mistake in that statement. "Ok so what's it say?" She asked, "Isn't eating spicy foods or walking supposed to work?" She asked, she may not be an expert on pregnancy but she did have her share of generally common knowledge.

"I eat spicy food all the time, so I doubt that would do anything. And Len's going to kill me if I go for a walk without him…" She trailed off as she looked over the list before sighing and putting the tablet down. "Maybe you're right, maybe I should just wait a little bit before I do anything." She said and Lisa shrugged,

"I mean at this point I doubt inducing yourself would be bad, I'm just saying that maybe you should wait until at least tomorrow." She suggested and so Sara nodded acceptingly, after all what if there was a reason that the baby hadn't come yet? Maybe it actually wasn't ready to come out. She didn't want to risk having the baby end up in intensive care after birth simply because she had been impatient and tried to speed up her labor.

By that same time the next day, Sara didn't care so much about being impatient. It was now two o'clock in the afternoon on December 21st, two days past her due date, and nothing felt like it was going to change.  
.  
.  
.

"You're making me dizzy," Len groaned as he sat on the couch and watched his girlfriend pace around their coffee table in a circle with her hands on her back.

"Well sorry but I'm trying to get your kid out of me!" She snapped, to her credit she was trying to keep her temper in check but every passing second of these last few days had gone by agonizingly slowly and the aching pain in her back, which unfortunately wasn't do to contractions, was not helping.

"All you're going to do is fall over when you can't see straight," Len objected but aside from sending him a glare Sara ignored her boyfriend.

She paced around for a few more minutes before she started to get dizzy herself and decided to settle herself on the couch beside Leonard.

"I'm sorry," he said to her sympathetically but she only scoffed.

"Why? It's not you're fault, well not completely anyway." She muttered,

"I know; I just hate watching you suffer." He said and Sara scoffed again,

"You hate me biting your head of every time you open your mouth." She corrected and Len had to concede to that, no matter how much he didn't want to.

"Guilty," he admitted before getting to his feet and offering his hand to Sara. "Come on," he said to her as she stared quizzically up at him.

"Where are we going?" She asked, slipping her hand into his and allowing him to pull her up to her feet.

"To get you out of this apartment before we both go crazy," he replied.  
.  
.  
.

Their little journey outside of the apartment found them at the local discount store where they decided to get a plastic Christmas tree and a few ornaments before they were all gone; they had been so busy preparing for the baby all month that they hadn't done much in celebration of the upcoming holiday. They bought mostly plastic balls and some colored lights, but after they were done Len drove to a nicer store closer to the center of town and dragged a very confused Sara inside with him.

"No," she said once they were inside the store and Leonard came to a halt by the nice Christmas ornaments. She tried to fold her arms over her chest to show her defiance at what her boyfriend was so clearly thinking, but that ability was long gone by now and so she settled for placing her hands on her hips; not matter how ridiculous it made her look.

"If you don't pick one out I will," Len told her firmly. Let the record show that normally Sara would not be opposed at all to buying a nice ornament, but the fact that he had brought her over to a rack of Baby's First Christmas ornaments when she was already two days past due and the holiday was just four days away felt like it was a cruel joke.

"What if it doesn't come by Christmas?" She asked and Len's only response at first was to eye her skeptically.

"Do you really think you're going to go more than six days overdue?" He questioned her; honestly he still believed that Mick's bet would be dead on with the 23rd.

"I don't know," Sara admitted with a shrug, "According to Lisa you were ten days late, so it's possible." She continued and Len let out a sigh,

"My mother's doctor also let a time traveling assassin and reincarnated bird make off with me five minutes after she brought me to the nursery, she wasn't all that bright." He teased and Sara smiled, "Now seriously, pick one. Worst comes to worst we'll have it for next year." He said and Sara couldn't help but smile at his words. It wasn't the idea of buying their child a Baby's First Christmas ornament that had her so giddy, well not entirely anyway. No it was Len's idea of the worst-case scenario, that they would have it for next year. That there wasn't a doubt in his mind that they would still be together as of next year.

She looked over the rack for a moment or two before selecting the one that she liked the best.

Len smiled as a sign of agreement when his girlfriend grabbed the ceramic ornament that was shaped like a snowflake with the words Baby's First Christmas written across the center in light blue cursive.  
.  
.  
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"And here we were hoping you might be in the hospital," Cisco exclaimed in disappointment when Sara and Len showed up to the S.T.A.R. Labs Christmas party on December 23rd and yup, she was still heavily pregnant.

"You and me both," Sara chuckled.

"Don't you people celebrate Christmas together? Why are you having a Christmas party?" Len asked while setting down the plate of cupcakes he and Sara had brought. They hadn't been 100% sure if they were even going to come but Sara needed a distraction from her misery and it's not like they couldn't make it to the hospital from S.T.A.R. Labs if something were to happen; which even if it did and they couldn't make it for whatever reason it would be better to be at S.T.A.R. Labs than their apartment.

"You call your doctor?" Barry asked, having heard from Lisa that Sara had decided if she didn't have at least any signs of having the baby by today she was going to go get checked out.

"Yup," She replied with a roll of her eyes, conveying the message even before she spoke it that whatever the doctor told her had not been what she wanted to hear. "They said that if I haven't had the baby by the 29th they'll induce me," She continued and most, if not all, of her friends shot her a brief look of sympathy.

With that said their little party got underway and eventually Len, who had mostly just been hanging in the back corner the whole time, found himself in the company of his little sister.

"How's she holding up?" She asked, taking a sip of her soda as she did so,

"Well she's tried every method of self induction that she can find but so far nothing's worked, so she's pretty frustrated." He replied and Lisa nodded, according to Sara her mom still hadn't given up on texting her every couple of hours and now even Laurel was sending a message asking about her status more than once a day, and she couldn't imagine any of this was helping.

"How are you holding up?" She asked and Len smirked before taking a swig of his own drink.

"I think I'm about as done with this part as she is," he mused, "Carter does have a point though, kid's just as stubborn and Sara and I." He continued and Lisa smirked at the statement.

"If that's the case, good luck."

While the two Snart siblings had their little conversation over in the corner Sara was talking with Caitlin to see if she had any ideas on how to prompt the kid into coming out already. Unfortunately everything Caitlin suggested Sara had already heard and tried at least twice and so they determined that she really had exhausted every method in the book. Caitlin offered to take a look at her, although she warned that this stuff isn't exactly her specialty, but Sara declined the offer. She had gone this morning to be checked out and she knew that Caitlin would give her the same results as her doctor did earlier; "Everything looks fine, the baby is in position which is good, it's just taking it's time."

Wally was nearby as they spoke and so when Caitlin was called away by Cisco it left Sara more or less alone with the kid who was looking at his phone and obviously only pretending to text.

Sara didn't know much about Wally; she knew who he was, that he had gotten along well with Jax at Thanksgiving, and she knew that is father still doesn't understand why he didn't become a speedster when he got hit with radiation the night Barry got his powers back. He's somewhat of a shy kid she's realized, not so much with his friends but with his family, and especially around her. She never really thought much of it, and even right now she still didn't, but she figured that sooner or later they were going to have to stop being strangers with each other.

"Wish you were anywhere but here?" She asked, snapping his attention away from his phone.

"No, it's just um… I didn't want to interrupt, I mean you and Caitlin…" He continued to stutter until Sara smiled at him in amusement, letting him know that whatever he was babbling about was perfectly ok. "Sorry, just I didn't want to be rude and look like I was eavesdropping." He said but Sara actually laughed at the notion.

"Don't worry about it kid, at this point I don't think it's a secret that I'm willing to try anything." She told him.

"Well sorry but I don't know any kind of tricks, or anything about babies at all." He admitted and that was when Sara understood his discomfort around her.

Wally had grown up with his mom and at one point his grandma, he lived as though he were an only child and because of work schedules and health issues he hadn't spent much time with friends or their families. As he got older he spent his time at the races, and those are certainly no place for a baby. He'd probably only ever been around a baby a very few number of times in his life, and clearly he'd be the first to admit that he knew nothing about pregnancy. So when it came to Sara he didn't quite know his boundaries, and so he played it safe by acting as though he weren't even there.

"Trust me, I've already tried everything." She told him, acting as though she hadn't just figured him out.  
.  
.  
.

"So maybe you were right and the ornament was a bad idea," Len admitted the next night when he and Sara finally got around to decorating their fake tree. He had just finished stringing lights on it and so they moved on to the plastic Christmas balls.

"It's like you said, at least we'll have it for next year." Sara said in an attempt to stay positive, although she really wouldn't mind saying "I told you so" right about now.

They continued decorating while trying to talk about anything other than the baby, which at this point was nearly impossible, until Sara froze in her place and rolled her eyes with a scowl.

"Crap," she grumbled, setting down the ball that she had and turning to leave the room.

"What?" Len called after her,

"I peed my pants," she muttered, just barely loud enough for him to hear, before she slammed the bathroom door.

Despite his girlfriend's obvious annoyance, Len couldn't help but snicker. This wasn't the first time she had peed herself because she didn't even know she had to go, but it was the first time in about a month and honestly it still made him both laugh and feel sorry for her. But the amusement didn't last long, as less than five seconds later he heard Sara scream and so he bolted to the bathroom.

Leonard had every intention of just bursting into the room, but Sara opened the door just before he could grab the doorknob.

"It wasn't pee!" She quickly informed him,

"What?" He demanded, suddenly even more convinced that something was very wrong.

"My water broke!" She exclaimed and although Len heard her loud and clear his brain seemed to shut off at her words.

"What?" He asked again, although a little less worried.

"My water broke!" She exclaimed again, this time a wide smile slowly creeping across her face and soon Len's as they processed that this was really happening. "We're having a baby," Sara said when it finally processed.


	25. It's (Finally) Time

"Ok, yup. Thank you so much, bye." Sara said as she hung up her phone before proceeding to roll her eyes at Leonard, who up until this very second had looked like he was ready to go for her hospital bag and bolt out the door.

"What did the doctor say?" He asked but regretted it the moment the words left his lips, especially when he saw Sara's already sullen face fall even more.

"She said that until my contractions are five minutes apart I don't need to be in the hospital," she reported with an obviously annoyed voice, an attitude that Leonard now shared.

"Are you kidding me?" He demanded, sure he had known that was the general rule of thumb and the plan, but he was a little surprised that Sara's water breaking didn't change anything even in the slightest.

"Nope, and considering I'm still yet to have even one contraction I'd say it's probably for the best. I'd rather be here than in a hospital," she confessed and Len had to agree with that. "So much for the baby not being born on Christmas," she muttered, earning a look of sympathy from her boyfriend.

"Well if things go fast, it might get here on Christmas Eve." He said in an attempt to cheer her up but the look she gave him said that she did not want to hear it.

"It's nine at night, we have a better chance of it coming after Christmas than before." She deadpanned and he conceded to that point.

"Alright, so now what?" He asked, knowing that they were probably going to be here for at least a few hours and so now was probably too early to call Dinah or Lisa.

"I'm going to text Laurel and my dad, they might not be able to make it out here until the day after Christmas but at least they'll know." She said and once that was done she turned to her boyfriend as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened; when in actuality something so out of the ordinary had taken place that the ordinary itself had begun to change.

"Want to play cards?" She asked, again as if nothing were out of the ordinary.  
.  
.  
.

Many people celebrate holidays such as Christmas in many different ways; but team Arrow might just have one of the strangest. Thanks to the fact that Sara is currently nine months pregnant and already five days past due it was a no brainer that she wouldn't be traveling anywhere this year. Couple that with the latest onslaught of Star City criminals and Laurel and Felicity didn't really feel like traveling to Las Vegas either, so Donna and Quentin went to Star City to celebrate Christmas and Chanukah with two of their three daughters. Thea and Roy had also come into town for the holidays, but what makes the celebration so strange is that rather than having some sort of party in somebody's apartment they were down in the bunker, two of them nursing their latest wounds.

"You kids need to be more careful," Donna scolded when Oliver and Laurel, the only active duty members of the team, came back covered in bruises and bloodstains.

"Relax mom, they've both had WAY worse." Felicity said. Laurel was currently using her right hand to wrap bandages around her bloody left one while Oliver had an ice pack pressed up against his heavily bruised eye, only after his sister shoved it into his hands of course. "Well I mean not WAY worse, or you know, I mean they've both come pretty close to dying so this isn't much, or…." Felicity's babbling trailed off while her mother's eyes just grew wider and wider by the instant, Laurel tuned it all out once her phone started buzzing with a new text from Sara.

_"Just went into labor, not even in the hospital yet but thought I'd let you know." ___

__Upon seeing this Laurel's eyes went wide and she snapped her head up only to find her father's gaze was mirroring her own._ _

__"Sara's in labor," she found herself saying in stunned amazement that this was really happening, her sister was having a baby and she was about to become an aunt._ _

__"What? On Christmas Eve?" Donna questioned,_ _

__"Sara doesn't have the best luck does she?" Thea remarked, knowing all about Sara's hatred of a Christmas birthday._ _

__"We've, we've got to get down there." Quentin stuttered, his face and voice already showing how nervous he was for his youngest daughter._ _

__"Dad there's not going to be a train running this late and the station will be closed tomorrow, not to mention it takes almost a day to get all the way to Central City." Laurel reminded her father. It isn't that she didn't want to go rushing off to Central City, because she certainly did, but there wouldn't be much of a point if they'd be skipping Christmas only to miss the birth of their newest family member._ _

__"We drove down here, if you take the car you won't have to wait for a train," Donna suggested,_ _

__"And the average labor time for a woman with her first baby is about twenty hours from start to finish, if you guys leave now you might just make it." Felicity encouraged and so with a desperate look Laurel turned to Oliver, because after the fight they just came out of she knew that he couldn't handle things alone if that maniac returned in the next forty-eight hours or so._ _

__"Go," he ordered her,_ _

__"And if that vigilante hunter comes back?" She questioned in understandable worry._ _

__"He won't," Ollie assure her,_ _

__"And if he does," Roy's voice came from behind Laurel and she turned to see he and Thea had stepped closer to Oliver and herself. "He's got us," he assured her and Thea nodded, making Laurel feel much better._ _

___"Go," Oliver encouraged once more and this time both Laurel and her father listened._  
.  
.  
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__Sleeping that night did not come easy to either Sara or Leonard, and it became practically impossible when Sara awoke from her half asleep state around three in the morning with the start of her contractions. They were fairly light and only fifteen minutes apart, so they knew it was still going to be a couple of hours before they would be leaving for the hospital. By around seven neither of them could take just lying there anymore and so they got up._ _

__"Can you eat anything?" Len asked Sara, her contractions were now coming twelve minutes apart and they both knew she was dreading having a long labor, but it looked like that's what was going to happen._ _

__"Something light," She replied whilst grabbing a banana, "You know, between waiting until Christmas to start coming and now still taking forever, I'm starting to think that this kid really hates me." She continued with her mouth half full and Len couldn't help but chuckle at the notion._ _

__"Does it hurt yet?" He asked, so far Sara hadn't shown any sign that she was in pain but then again she is pretty good at hiding stuff like that._ _

__"A little, kind of just feels like period cramps though." She replied and giggled upon realizing that wasn't a helpful point of reference at all. "It feels like someone took a blunt knife, stabbed just below my belly, and is slowly slicing across." She described, only to laugh again and harder at the very disturbed expression that crossed Leonard's face._ _

__"So did you text your mom last night?" He asked, both trying to change the subject and genuinely curious because he knew that there was no way Sara would've texted her father and sister but not her mother, if only because Dinah would never let her live it down._ _

__"And Lisa," The blonde replied, "But she and my mom are both very clear that I'll text them again when-" She stopped suddenly, her face panicked at first before it briefly scrunched up in obvious discomfort and pain and so of course Leonard grew worried._ _

__"Sara?"_ _

__"I'm ok," she assured him, her face relaxing slightly but not enough for his liking. "Just a bigger contraction," she said before the pain in her abdomen subsided, well for the most part, and she completely relaxed her face once again._ _

__"How bad?" Snart asked skeptically but Sara simply shook her head to dismiss his worry._ _

__"Not too bad," she promised, "Just like really bad cramps," she told him with a playful smirk, knowing that wasn't going to help ease his mind in the least._ _

__"Do I even want to hear that comparison?" He asked and she chuckled,_ _

__"Just imagine the knife was suddenly plunged deeper," she advised but clearly that didn't help, and the look of complete concern across her boyfriend's face was enough to make Sara finally lose control of her laughter._ _

__"What's so funny?" He demanded and when she finally gained a little control of herself she smirked at him._ _

___"You," she answered before leaning just a little bit closer, "You're cute when you're worried." She continued and now it was his turn to smirk at her before leaning over the counter, where he had been sitting on one of the barstools while she stood on the other side, and pressing a hard but yet still gentle kiss to her lips._  
.  
.  
. 

__"You know when Sara was born I had hoped that would be the last time I'd be rushing to the hospital on Christmas," Quentin remarked as Laurel drove them down the highway. He had driven for most of the night and so when they stopped for gas Laurel took over the wheel so that her father could sleep, not that he had done so just yet._ _

__"Well I doubt Sara's all that thrilled about it, she was never a fan of having been born on Christmas." Laurel reminded and her dad nodded, knowing that despite his and Dinah's best efforts she was right and that no matter how you cut it Sara still hates the date of her birth._ _

__"So what was that about a vigilante hunter?" He asked, suddenly changing the subject and Laurel rolled her eyes with a sigh; she had been wondering how long she could avoid this conversation._ _

__"Nothing, just Star City's usual brand of whack-job." She answered simply,_ _

__"Laurel-" her father began to lecture but she cut him off._ _

__"Look we don't know much," she admitted, "So far he's just some guy with something against vigilante's but Oliver and I can handle it," she assured her father and he nodded that he trusts her, thought that didn't stop him from silently thinking about how with the team reduced to just Oliver and Laurel in the field they had certainly been growing closer._ _

__They had to, of course, to watch each other's backs. Survival out there depended on them trusting each other and being able to communicate with as few words as possible. But that didn't stop Quentin from thinking that such a task had come almost a little too naturally to them._ _

__It was now a little past one in the afternoon and to say that Sara was miserable would be an understatement. Her contractions had slowly but steadily been getting more and more painful, along with closer together, and now she was at the point where they were eight minutes apart and they hurt far worse than any torture that had ever been inflicted on her._ _

__"That's it, we're going to the hospital." Leonard decided when he found Sara with her hands braced forcefully against the countertop as she struggled to breathe through her latest contraction._ _

__"Ok," she agreed, looking to see that he already had her backpack slung over his shoulder. Ordinarily she would've argued a little with him, tried to stay here until the contractions were closer together. But at eight minutes apart the hospital probably wouldn't turn her away and really she was in enough pain that she was actually grateful for Leonard taking charge._ _

__When her contraction ended she gasped out a sigh of relief and pushed herself away from the counter._ _

__"I'll call Lisa and my mom, let them know we're going." She said as Len grabbed the keys._ _

___"Already did, now let's go." He ordered firmly and with a nod Sara slipped on her coat, had Len help her with her boots, and they left the apartment._  
.  
.  
. 

__"Well mom I'm sorry but something came up," Cisco said, well more like nearly shouted, into his phone as Lisa drove the two of them down the streets of Central City._ _

__They had been planning on spending the day with Cisco's family, since it went without saying that Lisa's family wasn't going anywhere and didn't want anyone at their apartment either. Joe, much like Thanksgiving, had offered them both to join him and the others but by that time Cisco had already conceded to join his family for Christmas, and somehow Lisa was roped into going with him._ _

__"My girlfriend's sister-in-law went into labor, if you must know!" He continued and briefly Lisa's eyes went wide at the comment, before she realized that Cisco had only said it because saying "his girlfriend's brother's girlfriend," would be a mouthful. "I don't care, she's my friend too. Besides I haven't come to Christmas in three years, I think you guys will be just fine." He said before rolling his eyes in exasperation at his mother's comments on the other end. "Just tell everyone I say hi, I'll see you guys later." He said before hanging up his phone with a sigh and turning to Lisa who looked just the slightest bit uncomfortable after hearing his conversation with his mother. "I'm sorry, she can be a pain." He apologized,_ _

__"No don't worry, I can go drop you off there if you want-"_ _

__"No, no I don't want that." He interrupted her, "I warned you already that my family is really judgmental and I don't want to deal with that today." He explained,_ _

__"I thought you said things were better?" She asked and he sighed._ _

__"They're getting there between my brother and me, but the rest of my family is another story. Besides, somebody's got to keep you company in the waiting room." He said, smiling at his girlfriend as he finished, only smiling more when he saw the blush creeping across her face._ _

__"I mean Sara's mom will be there," She started,_ _

__"Wow," Cisco exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air for effect. "You'd rather hang out with Sara's mother than me!" He exclaimed and Lisa burst out laughing at the notion._ _

__"I would not!" She mock defended,_ _

__"I'm, wow I'm hurt." Cisco teased,_ _

__"Cisco!" Lisa scolded despite her laughing._ _

__"I am so deeply offended because clearly I am not good enough for you," he continued on, completely ignoring her orders to shut up._ _

__"Do you want me to turn around and bring you to your parent's?" Lisa threatened._ _

__"Nope, no you know what I'm going to do?" Cisco questioned, not intimidated in the least by her threat._ _

__"What are you going to do?" She played along,_ _

__"I'm going to sit next to you for however long we're there and I'm not going to say anything at all." He promised and again Lisa laughed out loud at the notion._ _

__"Ok, we'll see how that works." She taunted,_ _

___"We will," Cisco agreed defiantly, "And then we'll see just how much more fun Sara's mom is." He mocked and at this point Lisa was grateful to be stopped at a red light because she was laughing to hard._  
.  
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__Let it be known that Sara thought about not having an epidural, and the argument over it between her and Leonard was enough to drive the nurse out of the room saying that she would be back in a few minutes._ _

__"Leonard I am not taking the risk of something going wrong," Sara said through gritted teeth._ _

__"Sara I know you're a tough girl, but nothing's going to go wrong and you're going to want the pain relief." Len insisted and Sara was about to argue when another contraction wracked through her body. The pain was bad, ok actually the pain was nearing unbearable, and she knew that it was only going to get worse. She was clutching tightly to the sheets of the hospital bed until Len managed to pry one of her hands free and let it lock tightly around his. She heard him bight back a slight shout at the sudden feeling of his bones being all but crushed but he held it together until the contraction ended and Sara loosened her grip._ _

__"Ok you win, I'll get the epidural." She agreed._ _

__Five minutes later the nurse returned and asked again about the epidural, and this time Sara replied that she would take the medication. So the nurse left again and as they waited for her to return Dinah poked her head into the room before entering._ _

__"Hi," she said cheerily, quickly making her way over to her daughter's hospital bed to give her a hug. She then pulled away and gave Len a smile that he returned. "So what's going on?" She asked, eager to know what point they were at and how long it would be until she could meet her grandchild._ _

__"Well now that someone," Len drawled, glaring at Sara with a teasing smirk as he did. "Has agreed to let the doctor give her an epidural we're waiting for them to come back for that." He explained and then, as if on cue, the nurse returned and this time brought Sara's doctor with her._ _

__"Ok Sara, time for your epidural and then I'm just going to run some tests." She explained, much to happily for Leonard's liking mind you._ _

__"Oh, I'll go wait in the hall." Dinah quickly said,_ _

__"No mom," Sara began before turning to the doctor, "Can my mom stay?" She asked,_ _

__"Of course, this is only going to take a few minutes." The doctor replied and so with that said Dinah remained where she was as Sara followed the doctor's instructions to sit up on the edge of the bed so that the drugs could be injected into the small of her back._ _

__She complied with the orders and once that was done she lay back down so that they could hook her up to some machine for tests. The tests were standard, just to test Sara's blood pressure, the baby's position, and other routine things like that. But at one point Sara noticed the doctor's face had fallen into a frown and she was scanning through something for a second time._ _

__"Is everything ok?" She asked, hardly noticing that Len already had his fingers intertwined with hers as he brushed his thumb gently over her knuckles in worry that only intensified when the doctor hesitated to answer Sara's question._ _

__"The baby is showing signs of fetal distress," she said and at the moment both Sara and Len felt their hearts break. "This is not completely uncommon," the doctor quickly assured them, "It's most likely that your baby simply has a high amount of fluid in it's lungs, but regardless of the cause the we're going to need to bring you in for a C-Section." The doctor explained and to be honest neither Leonard nor Sara had seen each other so panicked since their mission back in the middle ages._ _

___"Ok," Sara finally agreed with a fearful nod._  
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__"Ok, thanks." Laurel said as she hung up her phone. Her and Quentin were now about four hours out of Central City, he was driving again, and thanks to the phone call she had just received from her mother she had lost all hope that they would make it to the hospital before the baby was born._ _

__"What's going on?" Quentin asked his oldest daughter who sighed uncomfortably._ _

__"The doctor ran some tests on Sara, and apparently the baby is having trouble breathing or something." She confessed, causing her father to momentarily turn his head to her. "They're bringing her in for a C-Section now, I guess the baby was only starting to decline so they're saying everyone's going to be fine." She assured her dad who sighed in worry,_ _

___"Let's hope," he muttered._  
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__It has been a long time since Sara felt true fear. Not even the thought of dying could truly bring it on the way that it should, and even during her mission in the middle ages she hadn't felt truly afraid because the whole situation had still felt unreal to her and hadn't fully processed. But now, as she lay on an operation table with Len standing right beside her wearing doctors scrubs, she remembered what true fear felt like._ _

__The doctor's had already given her an extra dose of the epidural, just enough to numb the lower half of her body completely while allowing her to stay awake. They had also blocked off her view of her stomach with a blue tarp like surgical cloth, which she was grateful for because her insides were the absolute last things that she wanted to see right now._ _

__"Hey," Leonard said, snapping her attention to him as he ran a gentle hand through her hair while the other hand held hers. "It's going to be ok," he whispered to her and she nodded with fear._ _

__"Ok Sara, we're going to start." Her doctor informed her and so again she gave a nod._ _

__"Ok," she replied in a weak voice that resulted in Leonard giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. She squeezed back and as the operation went underway, not that she could feel anything more than a few slight pinches, tugs, and the occasional pressure in certain areas. She tried to distract her worried mind and ended up thinking about everything that had led her to this table._ _

__She thought about the haze of pure bloodlust she had been in when she awoke from the pit, about how it had all cleared when she got her soul back. She thought about the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that was constantly pushing her to kill, and about how she left in order to try and get rid of it. She remembered waking up on that rooftop in Star City after a bar fight in Tibet. She remembered how her first day on the Waverider she was so sure she would have to teach Leonard a hard lesson after she caught him staring at her ass, and then about their trip to the 70's when she asked him to dance and then danced alone to show that she didn't need anyone. She thought about how, just when she was starting to feel like she was making progress against her inner demons, Rip asked her to kill one of their own in cold blood. She thought about Len talking her out of it, showing her that she could be more than a killer, and how that was when she knew she wasn't a monster. She thought about freezing with Leonard in the engine room of the ship, about how after everything she'd been through she didn't want it to be a cold room that took her out the second time. She thought about the 50's, about Lindsay, and how she showed her that she could still feel. She thought about her two years spent without Leonard, and how desperate she was for him when she got back. She remembered her world spinning before she fainted in 1901, and the sinking feeling in her chest when she found out why. She remembered all the stress she had over telling Leonard, and then how it came out in the worst possible way. She remembered prison at the vanishing point, saving Laurel's life, telling her parents about the baby, Mick's supposed death, Nyssa's brief return, her baby shower, betting at Thanksgiving, how pissed she had been this past week; all of it. She thought about everything she had been through as of late, and how after everything she was about to become a mother._ _

__Shoe looked up at Len to notice him staring right back down at her, and she smiled at him. Nine months ago they had been the Waverider crew's resident crook and assassin, and now they were about to officially become the parents of a little baby._ _

__Smirking as though he could read her mind Len ran his free and through her hair once again, and it wasn't even two minutes later that they both heard the high-pitched sound of something wailing like a siren. Looking up they saw the doctor holding up the crying baby so that Sara could see, and Len smiled as brightly and proudly as Sara at the sight. Obviously, after months of not knowing their baby's gender, one of the first things that they both looked at was the space between their baby's legs; they had a perfect little daughter._ _


	26. Welcome to the World

Little baby Snart was born weighing seven pounds and four ounces, perfectly healthy, and apparently the cause for her fetal distress was her somehow managing to wrap her own umbilical cord around her neck. So once that was untangled she began recovering quickly from it. At first Sara and Leonard had been, understandably, worried about how long their daughter had been in her predicament but the doctor assured them that she passed all of her newborn tests with flying colors and that considering the cord didn't even leave a mark there shouldn't be any lasting damage.

So now it was just the three of them in the little hospital bed, Sara holding the baby while Leonard peered over her shoulder at his daughter. She had chubby little cheeks, which Sara had already teased resembled the ones he'd had as a baby, and a little button nose. She was wearing pink hospital cap but underneath she looked completely bald at a quick glance, only after studying her more closely had Len and Sara been able to tell that she actually thin little wisps of blonde hair. She was yet to open her eyes but considering almost all babies are born with blue eyes they were sure that's what she would have, at least for now before they could maybe change to Leonard's more grayish blue.

Just then their little girl let out a quiet cough before her eyes started to blink open and just as they thought she had blue eyes. Leonard certainly hoped that she would keep them; they were just like Sara's, a piercing blue that gave him chills every time she stared him down.

"Hi," Sara said to their daughter, the happy tears in her eyes obscuring her voice just a little. "Hi baby," she continued with a wide grin before she leaned down and pressed a kiss to her daughter's nose.

Len smiled warmly at the sight, remembering how eight months ago when he found out that this moment would happen Sara had been crying what he thought could've been tears of joy but he didn't peg her for the type. Now though, now that they were here, she was crying out of joy and even if they both know she isn't normally the type they also know that she had damn well earned it.

"Do you want to go to daddy?" She whispered to the baby and at the sound of that Leonard looked to his girlfriend as if she were crazy but when the look on her face seemed so sure he found himself sitting down on the edge of the bed as she maneuvered their daughter into his arms.

He took her somewhat awkwardly, it had been a long time since he last held a baby, and he had NEVER even been near one this young. It took a minute or two of adjusting and readjusting, but eventually he had the little girl settled in his arms and amazingly she didn't start crying once throughout his and Sara's handoff. All she did was look up at Leonard, allowing him to determine that her blue eyes were definitely a match to Sara's. She closed those eyes once she was settled in his grasp and he couldn't help his heart swelling at the fact that his daughter felt safe enough to drift off to sleep in his arms.

The three off them sat there in silence for a while until Sara, who had her head resting on her boyfriend's shoulder, looked up at him with a smile.

"We should probably go get my mom and Lisa," She suggested and so Len shifted the baby back into Sara's arms.

"You're the one who just had a baby AND surgery, your call if you're up to it." He told her and she nodded while straightening up and adjusting the baby in her arms.

"I am, please go get them and see if they know where Laurel and my dad are." She instructed and so with a sweet smile Len place a gentle hand on the side of his girlfriend's head and pulled her towards him to place a kiss on her forehead before he got up.

"Would you relax?" Cisco pleaded with Lisa as they sat in the hospital waiting area, his girlfriend biting her nails anxiously while Sara's mother sat nearby and sipped her cup of coffee as if it were a life force.

"I can't!" Lisa all but shouted, "They haven't told us anything since they brought her in and it's been over an hour now! What if something went wrong?" She babbled,

"So what if it did?" Cisco asked and that was the absolute last thing Lisa had expected to hear him say, and he knew it too. "Sara survived Lian Yu, the League of Assassins, she even came back from death. Even in a city constantly being attacked by meta-humans your brother still managed to hold onto his number one most wanted slot until he decided he was ready to give it up, not to mention they both took down Vandal Savage; something two demigods couldn't do in 4,000 years. Even if something goes wrong it's not going to matter, because with the DNA from those two, I can promise that that kid is not going to give up." He assured his girlfriend, who beamed at hearing his words. Dinah had been listening too, and it certainly made her feel a lot better to hear Cisco so sure that everything was going to be ok.

But no matter how reassured they felt, the sight of Leonard entering the waiting area five minutes later snapped them all to attention.

"Sorry keep you all waiting but Sara needed some time to shake off the pain meds after the surgery," he said,

"So…?" Lisa trailed off with her question and Len nodded regardless, he knew what she wanted to know.

"Everyone's fine," he assured her and next to her Cisco let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank god," he muttered and while Len simply smirked in amusement at him, Dinah and Lisa both eyed him skeptically, wasn't he the one who had been so sure that everything would be ok?  
"What are you doing here Ramon?" Leonard asked; his arms folded across his chest but a smirk still on his face.

"It was either this or Christmas with my family," the engineer excused and Len nodded,

"Understood, now are we going to continue chatting in the waiting room or do you three want to come and see the baby?" He asked and of course that got Dinah and Lisa to their feet, Cisco was a little more hesitant but when Len nodded his approval he too rose from his chair and followed the others down the corridors of the hospital.

The moment before Dinah Lance entered her daughter's hospital room she promised that she wasn't going to cry. The moment that she did enter her daughter's hospital room was the same moment in which she started crying.

Sara was sitting in the bed, looking exhausted from the hours of labor and then the extra does of pain meds during her C-Section didn't help any, but she was still sitting there with a proud smile on her face and a little white bundle in her arms. Moving closer Dinah could see a small spot of pink that was the baby's hat and she became even more choked up.

Sara couldn't help but chuckle at her mother's reaction to seeing her granddaughter for the first time and was quick to pass her along for the older woman to hold.

"Oh, she's perfect." Dinah gushed and Sara beamed at the words while Lisa as Cisco both peered over Dinah's shoulder to get a look at the baby.

"Oh, hi sweetie." Lisa fawned over the little girl, giving her a small wave and a huge smile.

"What's her name?" Cisco was the first to ask the inevitable question.

"Aurora," Sara replied, "Aurora Dinah Snart." She said and upon hearing that her mother snapped her head up, causing Sara to chuckle slightly at the reaction. "It's partially after Laurel," she explained but that only appeared to make Dinah happier.

"Speaking of Laurel," Leonard drawled, suddenly realizing that he'd forgotten to asked about the rest of Sara's family. "Any idea on where she is?"

"They're a little over two hours away," Dinah informed before turning to Lisa and trying to hand off Aurora. However Lisa caught on to what she was doing and took half a step back, sending a desperate glare at her brother that only turned to shock when he nodded at her to take the baby into her arms.

"Lisa, don't worry, you're not going to drop her." He assured her but she still looked just as panicked, and maybe she had a right to be considering she had never actually held a baby younger than a year old, and even that had been a one time thing as well as years ago.

"Do you want to sit down first?" Sara offered from her seat in the hospital bed and Lisa nodded at the suggestion, at the very least it was safer than her holding the baby standing up.

So she slowly went over to the chair in the corner of the room and lowered herself into the seat. Once she was sure Lisa was all set Dinah crossed over and made to hand over the baby, Len even stood next to his sister and helped guide the newborn into her arms so she would be sure that nothing would happen. This did make Lisa feel better, because although she did try and figure out how to hold a baby before her niece was born the idea of actually doing it still made her unspeakably nervous. But before she knew it she was holding the baby, Lenny and Dinah had both backed off, and she was the actually holding her niece. Looking down, Lisa studied Aurora closely. Her face was still pink and her little eyes were now open, staring back up at her with a curious, if slightly unfocused, gleam. Len smirked as he watched his sister start to tear up but she just couldn't help herself. After everything that they had all been through, little Aurora was finally here.  
.  
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The days following Aurora's birth were definitely an adjustment period. Laurel and Quentin finally made it to Central City about three hours after she was born and them meeting her had gone about the same as Dinah and Lisa.

By the next afternoon Cisco, using the version of Gideon that is located in the time vault at S.T.A.R. Labs, was able to contact the Waverider and send the team some pictures of Aurora. Sara also asked him to inform them that she and Leonard wanted them to come meet the baby if they could, as there would be no telling when the next time they would be able to stop in the present might be. So they stopped by and getting Mick to hold the baby was actually, somehow, more complicated than prompting Lisa to do so. The arsonist stayed clear of the little bundle as if she had the plague, but eventually Sara managed to guilt trip him into holding her daughter. Unfortunately for Mick, Aurora had been getting fussy throughout the who ordeal and so once her parents had finally gotten him to hold her he only had her for a short two minutes before she started crying and that just ending in him swearing that he would never touch the kid again. Len simply rolled his eyes at the comment, the only problem his daughter had was her diaper was full and frankly they had already been avoiding changing it. It had nothing to do with his old friend and she was calm right after he changed her but nope, there was no getting through to Mick.

During all this Sara texted her sister to come down, as she was currently staying with their mother for a next few days, and when she got there Rip took her arrival as cue for he and the Legend's to leave.

"We should be going, congratulations again to you both." He said as they started to leave.

"That's up to you guys, but Rip," Len began, prompting his former captain to turn around and meet his eyes, "Can you stay for just a minute?" He requested and although Rip looked very confused he nodded nonetheless.

"We'll, um, meet you back at the ship." Stein said as he and the other Legends, all just as confused as Rip, left the hospital room and closed the door behind them.

"What's going on?" Laurel asked; she had no idea why Sara had asked her down here and now that they apparently wanted to speak with her and Rip she was even more lost.

Len looked to Sara, who nodded her approval on some unspoken question with a smile, and so he then turned his attention on the other two currently in the room.

"Sara and I have decided that although we aren't religious people, we still want Aurora to have godparents." He began and upon hearing that both Rip and Laurel's mouths fell slightly open.

"Leonard and I never would've met without either of you, and yes Rip I know at Thanksgiving you said we would've met without you but you also made it very clear that we wouldn't have had Aurora; so we figured that if we're going to ask anyone to be her godparents we'd ask the two of you." Sara explained but it was still a good couple of minutes before either Rip or Laurel said anything.

"You two can say yes or no any time," Len finally prompted when the silence began to tread in ridiculous territory.

"I, I'd love to," Laurel finally accepted and Rip nodded.

"Same goes for me," he managed to answer, a bright grin spreading across his face after he did and therefor finally processed what just transpired. He then cleared his throat to shake off the sweetness in the room as if nothing at all had happened. "Well then, I better be getting back to the ship before the others leave without me, because they will." He said, that got a bit of a laugh out of everybody; mostly they knew that it was true.  
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Now Sara and Leonard had been home for three days with their barely one-week-old daughter (six days) and were quickly learning how to adapt to life with a newborn in the apartment.

For starters they learned very quickly that it's very lucky they've both lived the majority of their lives with very little sleep and crazy, if even existent, sleep schedules. Aurora woke up pretty much every two and a half hours to eat, the only exception being after four a.m. when she inexplicably would sleep until it was nearly nine. She was sleeping the bassinet in her parents' room; they would move her into her room when she was a few months older. Another thing that they learned is that their neighbors on the left are very tolerable of the noise, while the ones on the right had adopted a new habit of pounding on the wall every time Aurora cried for longer than twenty minutes. There was one day; today in fact, that Leonard is sure he'll never live down. Aurora was crying non-stop ever since she woke up and it got to the point where it was nearing one in the afternoon, nothing was calming her, and he was genuinely starting to fear that Sara might take her knives out. So he called his sister and said,

"I don't care where you take her, or how long you hold this over my head, but please come get the baby out of this apartment for five minutes!" Actually he was lying; he did care about where Lisa took the baby. He knows that there are more than enough places that you should never bring a newborn but he also knew that she wouldn't go anywhere other than her own apartment.

Lisa was over right away only to find her screaming niece already loaded into her car seat. Ordinarily she would've been hesitant about being alone with the baby for the first time, but one look from her obviously far past irritated brother had her scooping up the car seat and rushing back to the parking lot.

"What's wrong Aurora? Huh, what's the matter?" She asked in a baby voice as she loaded her niece into the backseat of her car. But Aurora only screeched louder, actually prompting Lisa to cover her ears. "Ok, ok. Now I know why they call your mom The Canary." She grumbled before shutting the door and settling into the drivers seat.

She got about halfway to her apartment before the crying in the back slowed, about five more minutes and it had stopped completely. By the time Lisa reached her apartment she looked behind her to see that Aurora had fallen asleep. She kept the baby with her for about two hours and then brought her home, informing Lenny that a ride in the car will knock his daughter out cold.

So anyway, it was now just past eleven and Sara had just finished feeding Aurora and brought her to the bedroom to put her down. She then returned to the living room where Len was settled on the couch watching the New Year's Eve ball drop because the only other thing on TV was bad Christmas movies and a Three Stooges Marathon they had already watched part of.

"You should be sleeping," he said to Sara, knowing that Aurora would be hungry again around 1:30 and she would have to get up.

"Don't care, I refuse to be that woman who can't stay up until midnight once she has a kid." She argued and Len couldn't help but laugh.

"So what's your resolution this year?" He asked and before she could answer he held up a finger, "And please don't tell me it involves losing weight," he said, to be honest a lot of Sara's baby weight had already gone away and the last thing he wanted was her focusing on getting rid of the little that's left.

"It doesn't," She promised, "I don't think I have a resolution this year, for the first time since I was a kid everything is going perfect." She said and Len smirked a little before sighing.

"Well I hope I don't throw a wrench in that when I tell you my resolution is to make a change, specifically involving me and you." He said, gaining Sara's full attention as she shifted nervously in her seat to face him.

"What kind of change?" She asked,

"Well I was going to wait until midnight to ask you, but I suppose that could end up interrupted by someone waking up so I figured I'd ask now." He explained and the next thing Sara knew he was getting onto the floor and kneeling in front of her, pulling a ring box out of his pocket.

"Len, what are you doing?" She asked, completely dumbfounded.

"Well I'm trying to ask you to marry me," Len stated and Sara laughed at his bluntness, not that she would expect anything else from him. "So will you?" He asked, taking her hand in his. She nodded as a few tears started to fill her eyes and she wiped them away with her free hand.

"I guess," she mocked with a smile that Len's soon matched before he slipped the ring onto her finger.


	27. A New Mission

"Hey," Barry greeted late one afternoon when Sara and Len came into S.T.A.R. Labs, Sara carrying their daughter's car seat along with her.

It had been about three weeks since Aurora was born and so far Lisa was the only member of the team to have seen her since she was in the hospital. They had all heard about the engagement, which Barry ended up losing twenty bucks on because he bet Caitlin that it would take Len a lot longer than a week after the baby came to ask Sara to marry him.

"Hey," Sara said with a big smile, clearly happy to be out of the apartment.

"What are you guys doing here?" Caitlin asked, a happy smile lighting up her face as she laid eye on the baby.

"Well I was coming down bring Lisa the jacket she left at our place," Len began, tossing his little sister the garment that she had left behind last night when she was over for dinner. "And Sara decided today would be as good of a day as any to bring the baby down here." He continued and Sara shrugged despite the mocking tone in his voice. He knew very well that she just wanted to get out of the apartment and so when he got off the phone with Lisa and informed her that he needed to bring his sister her coat, she didn't hesitate to load Aurora into her car seat and join him.

"Well I will never say no to a chance to see that cutie," Cisco joked, earning laughs from most of his friends as he went over and bent down to get a look at the sleeping baby in the car seat.

"Yeah sorry Cisco, she kind of has a habit of falling asleep in the car." Sara said but Cisco merely straightened up and shrugged, he was still happy to have gotten to see the baby at all.

Sara and Len stayed at S.T.A.R. Labs for a little while; with Aurora sound asleep it gave Sara a much-needed opportunity to catch up with her friends and their activities. Sure Lisa had been passing along some information; such as what meta-human was currently on the loose and Cisco's latest creations. But she liked being able to talk with Cisco about the new weapons that some meta-humans were using, and with Caitlin just about anything else. Eventually Wally, Iris, and Joe showed up as well, as they normally do towards the end of the day, if only to check in. Iris immediately began cooing over the sleeping baby, who's car seat was perched on top of Sara's desk with Len sitting in the chair keeping an eye on her while Sara stood right on the other side.

"Oh my god, she's gotten so big already!" The journalist gushed as her father peered over her shoulder with just as much excitement evident on his face as there was on hers. Wally was glancing over her other shoulder, and Len smirked because the eyebrow that he raised at her said it all; he still thought Aurora was pretty damn tiny.

Speaking of Aurora, it was only a few minutes later that she opened her eyes and began to fuss, leading to Iris blushing with embarrassment.

"Oh, did I wake her?" She asked as Sara smirked as Leonard stood up and took the baby out of her car seat and proceeded to bounce her gently as a means of calming her.

"No, she's been asleep for almost two hours, she needed to get up." Sara said just as the baby started to cry louder in Leonard's arms.

"Hey Sara," he called over his daughter's wails, "I think she's hungry." He said, nine times out of ten Aurora would want to eat after she woke up from her nap and although he had hoped this time would be the exception there was no such luck.

"Ok," Sara said, making her way around the desk and taking Aurora from him. He felt bad for her really, today was the first day she had really left the apartment (two quick trips to the grocery store didn't count in his opinion) and still she couldn't even have a conversation with her friend. But, at the same time, she's the one who refuses to use baby formula so her options are pretty limited at the moment.

Anyway, once Sara had Aurora, Len handed her the cloth that they kept behind their daughter's head almost like a pillow in the car seat so that she could use it for any spit up. He then started to pull out the desk chair for her to sit down but she was already walking away.

"Where are you going?" He called after her, prompting her to turn back around just as she reached the doorway.

"Bathroom," She replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Len rolled his eyes at her.

"We're all adults here," he said before casting a glance over at Cisco, "Well most of us," he amended, earing a look of protest from his sister's boyfriend but no words accompanied it. "Just stay in here," he instructed and Sara looked around the room hesitantly.

"Does anybody care?" She asked and was answered with a mix of headshakes and various voices claiming "no".

Once Aurora had been fed she decided that she did not want to be put down, she didn't care who had her, but she wanted to be held. Sara gave her to Iris to hold and after awhile of talking with her friend she noticed Wally once again peering awkwardly over his sister's shoulder at the baby.

"You want to hold her?" She asked, her teasing smirk quickly turning amused when the kid looked at though she had just suggested one of the worst things that a person could.

"No, that's uh, that's ok." He stuttered out,

"Come on, you can sit down and hold her." The blonde continued to encourage but Wally was every bit as stubborn on his point and continued to shake his head.

"Wally, you'll be fine." Iris promised her brother but as expected he didn't appear to believe her. "Come on," She continued to prompt,

"No way," Wally insisted, "When that kid can hold it's own head up, come and talk to me. But for now, I'm not touching it." He deadpanned and as if to defend him Aurora chose that exact moment to start fussing and so Sara took her back from Iris.

"Fair enough," she said to Wally, although really she looked as though if Aurora weren't crying she would've kept arguing.  
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Three months later and things had fallen into some semblance of a routine in the Snart/Lance apartment. Sara was back at work part time and so when she was gone Len was home with Aurora and vise versa. There were times where Len had a job during Sara's work hours, but they were yet to run into an incident of that during a time where Dinah wasn't free and so Len could usually drop his daughter off with her grandmother on his way. Anyway, today was a Sunday and so Sara wasn't at work while Len didn't have any appointments. They hadn't put much thought into any sort of plans for the day, as Aurora had been up pretty much all night crying and she still wasn't getting much better.

They had tried just about everything that they could think of in order to calm her down but so far nothing was working. At first they had simply thought she was crying so much because they moved her into her crib for the first time last night and she was probably just scared and missing the bassinette. They had let her go for a few hours before Len finally grew fed up and went to check on her. Taking her out of the crib did nothing, giving her to Sara to feed her helped a little and allowed them to get her to sleep, but after an hour or so she was back at it again. This time Sara went into the nursery and reached only one hand into the crib to rub comforting circles on her daughter's belly. When it finally calmed her enough for her to go back to sleep Sara left and that was that until morning.

But now it was nearing three in the afternoon and Aurora hadn't wanted to be put down all day. She had been ok in the morning, lying on her blanket on the floor while her parents played with her. With the weather getting nicer they decided that taking her out somewhere within walking distance might not be a bad idea and so they tried assembling the stroller, but around that time was when she started crying.

"Oh what's wrong? What's wrong baby?" Sara asked in a baby voice as she lifted Aurora out of her little swing but it had almost no effect. She started rocking her daughter and Len handed her the pacifier, but Aurora wouldn't take it.

"She just ate," Len observed, knowing that it wasn't like Aurora to have much of a problem literally five minutes after eating.

"Her diaper smells fine," Sara declared after lifting the baby up in a way so that she could make a guess on the diaper. "Shh, shh, I know." Sara cooed as she faced Aurora outwards and pressed her cheek against her head. She began pacing around the apartment, putting an extra sway to her hips as so to rock her baby, but it hardly did anything.

"Maybe she has gas?" Leonard suggested but Sara shook her head.

"She burped after she ate," She reminded him and he shrugged, so she decided it was worth a shot and shifted Aurora as so to burp her. But after more than a few minutes it was painfully obvious that this wasn't working.

At this point Len got up and took his daughter from Sara, he then proceeded to try putting her down in various places but that only made her screech louder.

"Thank god the neighbors are away this week," he found himself muttering under his breath, the last thing that he needed was those people pounding on the walls.

"Why don't we change her diaper?" Sara suggested,

"I thought you said it smelt fine?" Len questioned but Sara only shrugged.

"Maybe we put it on weird and it's bothering her or something, I don't know what else could be doing this to her!" She exclaimed, gesturing to the screaming baby for emphasis and so Len conceded to her point.

Sure enough Aurora's diaper was just fine, but they changed it anyway because they couldn't think of anything else but it still did nothing. She continued crying for another hour until Sara finally gave up trying to keep her on her schedule and fed her, and that shut her up. Once she had eaten she was calm for a few minutes before she started fussing again, and Sara and Leonard both knew that if they didn't figure out her problem fast they would be dealing with yet another meltdown. So it was at this point that Leonard decided to test out Aurora's reaction to a trick that sure as hell never worked on Lisa as a child, it only ever annoyed her. Thankfully she took the pacifier this time and once she had that he tried singing to her, which much to his surprise actually put her to sleep.

"You're a terrible songwriter," Sara mocked after Len put Aurora in her crib and flopped down next to her on the living room couch. He snickered at this, he doesn't really remember any lullabies so he had quite literally just singing about wanting his daughter to calm down, but it worked.

"What do you think got into her?" He asked but Sara simply waved off his obvious concern.

"She didn't eat much when I fed her last night, between that and putting her in the crib I think she's just having an off day." She theorized and Len nodded in hopeful agreement.

But when their daughter woke up absolutely nothing would calm her.

She wasn't hungry, she wasn't wet, she wasn't tired, she was just flat out crying for no apparent reason. Only when Leonard held her against him and she started sucking on his shoulder did she finally seem content.

"Really?" He asked, "This is making you happy?" He asked before turning to Sara who looked just as dumbfounded as he did. "I don't get it, she won't take her pacifier but she'll suck on me?" He asked and as realization dawned on her Sara placed her hands on her hips and a wide smile crossed her face.

"Oh my god," she gasped, causing Len to eye her with extreme skepticism.

"What?" He asked; confused as to what suddenly had her so elated.

"That's why she's been crying all day, she's teething!" She exclaimed and although Len's face didn't change he did realize that her theory made sense. Aurora wouldn't take her pacifier because essentially it's just hallow rubber, there's nothing to bite. But the firm muscle and bone of his shoulder, even through is shirt, is something different.

Sara's smile widened at the revelation, and Len's soon turned to match it. They had actually figured out what was wrong.

"I guess we're going to have to buy some of those rings," he joked and Sara nodded in agreement.  
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"Oh you look so pretty," Sara gushed as she got Aurora ready for her father and Donna's wedding. Aurora was now just two days past five months old and so far had two little teeth in the center of her bottom gums. She also still appeared to be bald from a distance, but that's only because the short blonde hair that covers her head is so light in color.

Anyway, Sara had her dressed in a sleeveless purple dress with a matching headband that had a rather large purple flower sewn onto it.

"Mommy looks pretty too," Leonard said, coming up behind Sara and putting his arms around her. He swayed her slightly to the side, plating a kiss on the crook of her neck and she swore that her hands needing to remain steady on Aurora's hips to keep her from falling over was the only thing keeping her from melting completely into Len's touch.

"Let mommy go before baby falls," she moaned her warning. To give some context to her worry over Aurora falling, they were currently in a Vegas hotel. More specifically, Aurora was sitting up on top of the hotel room dresser as her mother got her ready and considering she had just barely learned to sit up on her changing table at home Sara was being very cautious to hold her steady so that she wouldn't topple forward and fall to the floor far below.

Len conceded to the warning and slowly trailed his hands off his fiancée, deliberately lingering just long enough to feel her shudder when he sucked lightly at that pulse point on her neck.

"Maybe we can pawn her off on Felicity later," she suggested, half her mind still caught up in the fleeting moment that had just passed.

"Not Laurel?" Leonard asked in surprise, it's not that he wouldn't trust Felicity in watching Aurora, it's just that he had expected Laurel to be Sara's first choice. But still Sara shook her head at his question whilst also lifting their daughter into her arms.

"Felicity grew up here and already knows that Vegas isn't her place, Laurel on the other hand might go out with Ollie after the wedding, especially since they just caught their vigilante hunter." She explained, neither of them was exactly sure how involved with each other Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance were these days but they both got the feeling that they might be heading back to what they used to have.

Sara, despite having once helped Ollie cheat, was hoping they would get back together. She had said it herself long ago; its always Oliver and Laurel. Only after everything that's happened, specifically after knowing that Laurel could've died that night in the prison, can she now see that that's the way it always should be. After Leonard saved Laurel, something she still can't really believe he had done, she asked Ollie what he would say to Laurel if he were to never see her again. He claimed that he would apologize, and knowing him he probably would. But Sara had heard something else in his voice that night, a hint that there was more he would want to say but they were not words meant to be heard by Laurel's sister.

"Sounds like a plan," Len agreed, interrupting Sara's thoughts in the process. He then proceeded to take Aurora from Sara, smile brightly at the little girl as he did. "How does that sound to you?" He asked the baby, "Huh? Would you want to sleep over with your Aunt Felicity tonight?" He asked playfully, gently lifting his daughter up above his head and pulling her back down as he did so, thus making her giggle uncontrollably.

Sara smiled at the image before her. When she first met Leonard Snart she never would've pegged him for a baby person, not that she would've pegged herself for one either. But yet, here they are. The ex crook, the ex assassin, and their daughter. They were the one thing that Sara had given up hope on ever having after the Gambit.

One big, happy, family.


	28. One Big Happy Family (Part 1)

The wedding between Donna and Quentin was great, but when eleven months later found Sara and Leonard on the eve before their own wedding, they were much more excited. The planning process had it's ups and downs, the downs usually resulting in Lisa rolling her eyes at somebody because she had put just as much planning effort into the event as the bride and groom, thus meaning that the three people in charge of everything were also the three people with the shortest tempers. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Sara's mother, the three of them probably would've killed each other at some point over the past year.

But now it was nearly over, and tomorrow was the much-anticipated big day. They had considered a few different places as to where to get married, and considering they're both very non-traditional they ruled church, beach, and park out right away. Instead they had decided to go to Star City to get married, in the vacant lot where the Waverider first picked them up. Since Ray already has a minister's license he would be officiating the wedding, although like with Aurora and now Sara's last name Len had tried everything he could think of to talk his fiancée out of it. Sara had picked Lisa as her maid of honor, which Len had initially been thrilled about until he realized just how involved in Sara's business that put Lisa, she was around so much helping Sara that it started to remind him of the days where she was a little headache that he could NOT get rid of. Laurel and Felicity would be Sara's other bridesmaids, Len had chosen Mick for his best man, and of course they had tasked Aurora with being the flower girl.

Speaking of Aurora, or Rory as some people had begun calling her, she was probably more excited than anyone for her parents' wedding. She was pushing sixteen months old now and starting to talk, although her words sounded more like jumbled sounds than anything else. Still, once you were around her long enough you could make out the words "flower girl", which sounded more like, "fwow gir", in about every other thing she said.

Anyway, as it is the night before the wedding, which is taking place in Star City, Sara, Len, and their daughter, were staying with Laurel for the night. After tomorrow Rory would be staying here with her Auntie Laurel for the next week while her parents headed off on their honeymoon.

"So you're staying here tomorrow?" Len asked his fiancée, the two of them were currently lying awake in the guest bed of Laurel's apartment with Rory sound asleep between them.

"Yes, and you're going to the Waverider." Sara confirmed, they may not be the most traditional people usually, but Len had insisted on not seeing her before the wedding. Sure technically the superstition is 24 hours, but he's not a man who believes in superstitions.

"Noted, so what about Rory?" He asked,

"She's going to stay with me if that's alright," she said and Len nodded,

"Of course, besides I'm not sure I like the idea of her running around a spaceship that travels through time." He replied and Sara chuckled,

"Fair point," she agreed with a yawn before leaning over Rory to give Leonard a kiss, "I love you," she murmured as she pulled away.

"I love you too," He said back.  
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The next morning, as expected, brought chaos.

It started off calm enough, well, as calm as a wedding day can start off anyway. Leonard got up early to make breakfast, as he usually does at home, so this wasn't any shock to Sara. But it was to Laurel, who came traipsing curiously out of her room nearly an hour earlier than she had been planning to, which was already an hour earlier than normal.

"Didn't mean to wake you," Len more or less apologized, peering over his shoulder to see his soon to be sister-in-law looking at him as though there was something about him standing in front of a stove that had her completely dumbfounded. "What? Do you seriously think I'm going to let Sara near your stove?" He asked sarcastically, "No thanks, I put out enough kitchen fires at our place." He said and as if she had heard him mocking her, which she might have considering he wasn't bothering to keep his voice down, Sara came out of the guest room with Rory balanced on her hip.

"I am not that bad," she stressed as she placed Rory into the portable high chair that was clamped onto Laurel's table.

"The macaroni and cheese?" Len skeptically reminded Sara, turning around to raise an eyebrow at her.

"That was one time," she defended and so with a roll of her eyes Laurel went into the kitchen and snagged a piece of bacon off of one of the plates Len was scooping scrambled eggs onto.

"Whatever, just eat fast because you have to leave soon." She cut off the conversation, despite how much she wanted to know about this mac and cheese incident, and the four of them carried on with breakfast.

By the time breakfast was done, or nearly done anyway, Laurel was on her feet and clearing away the places before either Sara or Leonard had the chance to beat her to it.

"Where's the fire?" Sara joked when her sister took plate from her barely seconds after she had swallowed her last forkful of scrambled eggs.

"You need to get ready," Laurel replied, very matter-of-factly. "And you need to go to the Waverider and do the same, not to mention you and the boys seem so confident that you'll have enough time to set up first. So get going," she practically ordered Len, taking his plate from him probably before he was done.

Since the vacant lot is really the only place in the city for the Waverider to park, it was going to be in the back. Sara and Len didn't care of course, they did meet on that ship after all and so having it in the background of their wedding was just fine. So the plan was for the Len and anyone else who came with the Waverider to spend the morning setting up all of the chairs and everything for the wedding before getting ready, but obviously this left Sara, Laurel, Lisa, and pretty much everybody else nervous about time.

"Right, we've got a lot of work to do, I'll see you girls at the wedding." Leonard conceded, getting up from his chair and giving both Sara and Aurora each a kiss before he walked out of the apartment.

"Is it really just him and Rip's crew setting up down there?" Laurel asked skeptically once her future brother-in-law was gone.

"Felicity is sending Curtis down, I'm sending Sin, and with Thea coming early to help me with my makeup I asked Roy to go down too." The younger blonde replied and Laurel nodded, the idea of three extra sets of hands down there did make her feel a little better.

Less than a half hour after Leonard had left, Lisa showed up with Dinah, and later came Felicity and Donna. Now this threw Sara for a loop, because Donna was not supposed to come.

"I'm sorry, she insisted on being here." Felicity said in resignation as she and her mom entered the apartment, no doubt after a long car ride of incessant arguing. Donna's face, of course, showed no sign of any frustration and was already lighting up in a bright smile from her excitement.

"Hi Donna," Sara said, admittedly she did feel a little bad for not inviting her stepmother to help her get ready for her wedding, but then again Donna and her father hadn't even been married a year and she thought it would be understandable to not want her mother in such close quarters with Donna for the entire morning. Yes, the two of them do get along, but Sara hadn't wanted to push her luck on a day where tensions would already be running high.

"Sara, congratulations!" Donna squealed, hurrying over to hug her younger stepdaughter. "Oh you look so beautiful," she gushed once she had pulled away, resulting in a chuckle from Sara.

"I haven't done anything yet," she told Donna, "But thank you for coming," she continued gratefully, and in all honesty, as nervous as she was, she was grateful. She was going to need all the help she could get with this.  
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"Man your sister is crazy!" Jax exclaimed as he came marching back onto the ship, hanging up his phone, and locating Len in the cargo hold.

"She's calling you now?" The former Legend questioned his young friend, "How did she even get your number?" He wasn't even sure he wanted the answer to that question.

"Probably stole it out of Sara's phone, you stop answering her?" He asked as Snart handed him a few folding chairs before picking up his own and they headed out of the cargo hold.

"She's been going nuts with this whole planning thing, just like she did for Sara's baby shower. I never knew she could be such a control freak." Len answered as the two of them made their way out into the lot.

"It's kind of sweet," Jax mused once they came to a stop at an unfinished row of chairs and began setting up the ones they had brought. He looked like he was going to continue the thought, had he not been distracted by the sight of an approaching girl about his own age dressed in goth styled clothing.

"Any reason I'm out of bed at nine on a Saturday?" She directed her question at Len as she got closer to him and Jax, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her pants as she took her sweet time in approaching.

"Apparently Sara doesn't trust me when I tell her we have it covered, but since you're here, come on." He instructed, cocking his head towards the ship in an instruction for her to follow Jax and himself, the former still being oblivious to this girl's identity.  
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So it turned out to be a good thing that Donna showed up.

When Sara asked Thea if she would do her hair and makeup for the wedding it wasn't a surprise that the younger of the Queen siblings had agreed immediately. She and Roy don't live all that far from Star City, so their plan had been to leave their apartment at five in the morning so that Thea could be at Laurel's and Roy at the lot for ten. But that all went down the drain two hours into their drive when an accident up ahead stuck them in traffic and resulted in Thea calling Sara to inform her that at this rate she was never going to make it.

Obviously this could've easily sent the whole thing into disaster, but thankfully Donna has lived and worked the majority of her life in Las Vegas where she's done show makeup on and off for years. So Sara was willing to trust her with doing her hair and makeup, it's not like she was going to have much of a choice. But that being said she still made sure to pull her mother aside, while Donna rushed out to her car to get her makeup kit mind you.

"Are you alright with this?" She asked and much to her surprise, surprise was the exact expression on Dinah's face.

"What do you mean?" She asked,

"Donna doing my makeup," Sara deadpanned, beginning to regret it when her mother actually seemed more offended by the notion that she wouldn't be ok with it. "It's just that, you're my mom and I don't want Donna involving herself if you're uncomfortable with it." She explained and Dinah actually laughed at the notion, grabbing her younger daughter's hands and locking eyes with her.

"Honey, I'm not worried about how close you or Laurel become with Donna. In fact I'm glad you are, she and Felicity are both part of your family now and I think it's wonderful that she can help you get ready for your wedding." She said, which lifted a huge weight of guilt off of Sara's shoulders.

Fifteen minutes later found Sara sitting on the toilet lid in Laurel's bathroom as Donna crouched in front of her applying blush to her cheeks when Aurora ran in for the umpteenth time.

"Hi sweetie," Sara beamed, cracking her eyes open at the sudden sound of hurried little feet on the bathroom tile. Her daughter had already been given a bath and her hair had been dried for the day, they weren't going to put her dress on until the absolute last minute out of fear that she would stain it with something. So with her all taken care of for the time being, Lisa and Laurel were supposed to be keeping her entertained in the living room but they seem to keep losing her.

"I'm sorry," Laurel huffed as she walked briskly into the room, "Nothing's holding her interest." She continued, Lisa coming up right behind her.

"That's ok," Sara assured them, lifting Rory onto her lap when Donna turned away to swap out her brushes. "Do you want some makeup too?" She asked her daughter in a playful voice. The little girl responded with a vigorous shake of her head followed by reaching her hands out to touch her mother's face.

Sara gently pushed Rory's hands away with a laugh, giving them a little kiss as she did so, which only made Rory giggle.

"Ok well I'm sure Auntie Laurel and Auntie Lisa can find some for you," She said and so that turned the excited child's attention to her two aunts, who were both trying to figure out if Sara was serious or not.

Sara noticed this and so as Aurora slid off her lap she looked up at her sister and soon to be sister-in-law. "Just put a little bit of lip gloss on her, and if she'll hold still long enough you can paint her nails." She explained; that got a nod from both Laurel and Lisa and so without any hesitation the latter lifted the little girl up into her arms and carried her off.

"Come on Aurora, we'll go and make you look so pretty and you can show mommy when we're done." She promised as they left the bathroom with Laurel shutting the door behind them.  
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"Oh god," Leonard groaned, they had now finished setting just about everything up for the wedding and so he was with Mick in his room on the Waverider getting dressed when he happened to check his phone and see a text from his sister.

"What?" Mick questioned, fiddling with the tie that he may as well give up on. The man knows how to pilot a 22nd century time ship, but a simple tie from his own present is completely lost on him.

In response to the question, Len showed Mick his phone and the picture that Lisa had sent, and Mick howled with laughter.

There, on the screen, was little Aurora beaming like she was the happiest girl in the world, and proudly holding out her hands for Lisa to snap a picture of her bright pink fingernails.

"Just wait Lenny, soon she'll be painting your nails while you're asleep." He continued to mock as he took the phone from Len and looked at the picture, and probably sent it to himself.

Len rolled his eyes at his friend, and admittedly cringed at the warning of how his daughter would likely use him as a test subject for makeup throughout her preschool years. He turned away from Mick and back to his own tie, that is, until Mick spoke up again.

"Man, she's really getting big." He mused, Len turned to see that all hints of laughter were gone from the other man's voice, but his face was still beaming with a nearly proud smile. He peered over at the phone to get a good look at the picture of his daughter, as if he needed the reminder of how old she was.

Mick hadn't seen her since her first birthday, back when her walking was still questionable and she barely had enough hair for Sara to do one little, Cindy Lou-Who style, ponytail on top of her head. But now she was running all around the apartment, albeit clumsily, and her short blonde hair had grown out enough to fall just past her ears and frame her face. Len was also thrilled that her eyes never faded color, meaning she had kept the bright and piercing shade of blue that Sara has.

"Yeah, she really has." He mused with a proud smile of his own, before taking back the phone and shoving it away in his pocket. "Now come on, she'll be here in a few hours, when it's time for me to marry her mother." He continued and Mick smirked at the statement, it may not seem like much to some people, but he could tell that Leonard hadn't been this excited about anything since the day his daughter was born.


	29. One Big Happy Family (Part 2)

"So you're a superhero?" Jax looked up at the sudden, and somewhat bored, remark from the goth girl who had shown up roughly two and a half hours ago.

By now almost everything was set up and those who were here working had one by one started heading off to get ready for the day's event. He and Sin, which he had since learned her name was, were setting up some peach colored curtains at the start of the aisle when she finally decided to break the silence.

"Um, yeah." Jax answered, a little surprised that after working together in nearly fifteen minutes of silence she had spoken up. "But only when I combine with Gray," he explained and she arched an eyebrow at him.

"Come again?" She questioned skeptically and Jax chuckled, he'd gotten so used to living with what is essentially a time traveling circus that he had forgotten a statement like that would be very confusing to a normal person.

"Professor Stein," He began to explain,

"The old guy?" Sin questioned and Jax nodded.

"This is going to sound weird but we… share our powers." He tried saying but Sin didn't look like she understood any more than she did ten seconds ago.

"So what?" She asked, "You high five and then you can use your powers?" She asked and Jax actually laughed at that, noting that life would be a whole lot simpler if that were the case.

"Not exactly, though we do high five." He joked while steadying his curtain just as Sin did the same. "But when we do we sort of… become… one person." He explained further, wondering if his words were making any sort of sense or if they were completely lost on even the girl who had been able to get her head around her best friend coming back from the dead.

"Wait…" She trailed off, a grin lighting up her face in a way that let Jax know she did in fact understand. "So when you use your powers, you become a sixty-something year old man?" She teased, nearly doubling over laughing at the sight of Jax's flushed face.

He just stood there for a minute, watching her laugher harder and harder with each passing second of silence from him.

"Are you done?" He finally managed to ask, of course by this time Sin was practically on the ground she was laughing so hard.

She didn't respond at first, just continued laughing while Jax watched her with a stare that was torn between unamused and very amused.

"Ok, ok I'm done." She finally said between two bursts of laughter, rising back to her feet on slightly unstable legs. "I'm done," she confirmed again, this time in a stronger and more assuring voice.

"Good, because for the record it's my body when we become one person. Gray sort of goes inside my head." He explained but Sin only started laughing again, maybe he should've just let things be.  
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"Huh, they did alright," Laurel praised as she and the others arrived at the lot just in time for the wedding. The seats were set up along with the aisle and a little altar made of two ladders, a plank of wood between them, and some pink flowers set in vases on the ladder rungs. They had also set up some peach colored curtains at the beginning of the aisle on both sides for the girls to stand behind, not that the girls knew how annoying of a process that ended up being for Jax.

As far as Laurel could see everyone was here, which was good. The only person she couldn't see was Leonard, but that was part of the plan. They had agreed that he would wait on the Waverider until Mick went and got him so that they wouldn't risk him being able to see Sara as she got out of the car. Speaking of Mick, he was up at the alter with Ray and spotted the car before Laurel even had the chance to text him.

"Ok, everybody ready?" Ollie asked, it had surprised just about everyone when Leonard asked him to be one of the groomsmen, but he later explained that Mick, his sister, and his daughter are really the only people he cares about having in the wedding. So when he realized that they would need to find two people to walk Laurel and Felicity down the aisle, and that Sara tasked him with it, he asked Jax and Oliver.

"I think so," Sara replied nervously as Donna finished making some last minute adjustments to her hair.

"All set, I'm going to go get your father." The older woman all but squealed before giving her stepdaughter one last hug and hurrying out to her seat.

It was only a few seconds later that Quentin showed up behind the curtains with Jax by his side, both of them looking awestruck the moment they laid eyes on Sara.

"Wow," Jax gasped, that was all he was able to get out and it made Sara beam with a giddiness that she so rarely feels.

"You look beautiful baby," Quentin said and just as he did little Aurora peeked out from behind her mother's legs and, upon recognizing her grandfather, toddled her way over to him and stretched up her arms to be lifted.

"Hey sweet pea," Quentin said with a smile as he hoisted his granddaughter up. "You look as pretty as your mother," he said to her, Jax giving the little girl a wave from behind him, which prompted her to turn her head away.

"She's just a little shy," Sara assured her former teammate before taking her daughter from her father. "Everyone's all set?" She asked and her father nodded.

"All set," he confirmed, "Are you nervous?" He asked and she nodded,

"A little," she admitted, and she was. Her heart was practically beating out of her chest and she felt like her entire body was shaking with adrenalin. But it was the good kind of nervous, the kind where she just wanted to be up at that alter already and saying her vows to Leonard.  
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Meanwhile Len was still in Mick's room on the Waverider, pacing anxiously and trying to memorize his own vows. He'd already accomplished this task ten times over of course, and since he and Sara had written their own it wouldn't matter if he forgot something so long as he recovered it in time. But he was still unspeakably nervous about all this. He had never in his life, not even for a moment, believed with all his heart that he would one day get married. So the idea of getting married to a woman as incredible and loving as Sara Lance just left him to wonder where he went right in life.

He had probably only ever made a handful of right turns throughout his life, and the one he really can't believe that it ended up being the one that he took for the wrong reasons that turned out to be the most important.

"Ready boss?" Mick's voice cut through his musings, the man was standing in the doorway with a giddy smile spread across his face and for once Leonard didn't feel the urge to smack it off, well not entirely anyway.

"Yeah, let's go." He agreed, following Mick out of the room and off of the ship.

They made their way out to the ceremony and once Len found his place by the alter and Mick was a little more than halfway to the back, Sin flipped on Rip's high-tech music speaker and signaled the ceremony to start. Dinah came first down the aisle, followed by Felicity and Jax, then Laurel and Oliver. Aurora was due to walk next, and honestly Len was a little curious as to how she was going to do. Sure she's been super excited for this for weeks now, and she did great during the rehearsal, but he wasn't so sure how she would do with so many people.

To her credit, she didn't start crying immediately upon setting foot on the peach colored carpet. Leonard personally thought that she looked adorable, dressed in a white dress with a poofy skirt and a pink sash around her waist. Not to mention the pink flower that was clipped into her hair or the fact that she was actually remembering to toss a few flower petals out of her little basket. However he could also see her little face growing redder and redder by the minute, along with her steps growing slower and slower. He tried giving her a reassuring smile, and secretly he felt that it worked. She locked eyes with him and seemed to grow a little more confident, but that only got her halfway down the aisle before she broke down completely. Fortunately, Dinah had also been watching and so once Aurora broke she was on her feet and hurrying back down the aisle to scoop her granddaughter into her arms. Once she had her she hurried back up to her seat and sat down with Rory on her lap, and the ceremony continued.

Sara came out next with her father, and Len swore he felt himself stop breathing for a moment.

She was wearing a mermaid style dress, one that had the typical, poofy, material for the skirt but slowly faded into lace as it went up. Two thick straps of lace found their way over her shoulders and only when she turned slightly to face her father did Len notice that the lace simply wound back down her hips and that the dress was backless.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Ray started with his part as soon as Sara's father was seated and Sin cut the music. "We've all gathered here today, in this empty shipping yard, to celebrate the marriage of Sara Lance and Leonard Snart. Now I'm going to be short and sweet, partially because for me short and sweet is still long, and partially because the last time I was in town Sara warned me that if I rambled too long today she would turn my A.T.O.M. suit into scrap metal." He joked and that got a little bit of a laugh from everyone, even Dinah who had just discovered the truth about her daughter's adventures through time very recently. "So anyway, I just want to say that when I first met Sara and Leonard I was afraid of them both, and that hasn't changed." Apparently Ray is that one minister who likes to crack jokes, "But over the months that they served as legends, they taught me a very valuable lesson. That lesson is, that people aren't always who they appear to be. I met Sara and Len, and all I saw was an assassin and a crook. But they tore through my world of black and white, and showed me that sometimes things aren't straightforward, sometimes they're bent. And those bent things, they are the most beautiful." He concluded, it was at this point that Len spared a glance past Sara when the sight of his sister wiping away tears caught his eye. "Now, I understand that you've written your own vows?" Ray asked more than said; that was Leonard's cue to speak.

"Sara," he began, nervously taking her hand as he did. "When I got on that ship I was only intending to make a profit by stealing priceless artifacts as we traveled, but then I met you and I knew I was in for more than I bargained for. I watched you take down men twice your size, and when we were facing death locked in a freezing room, I realized that I never want to meet my end without you by my side. You've given me a life I never could've dreamed I'd have, and I hope that somehow I can make you as happy as you've made me." He concluded, he tried not to smile at the tears he saw welling up in Sara's eyes as a watery smile spread across her own face, but he just couldn't help himself. It was impossible not to smile, she looked like an angel standing in front of him and if it weren't for their joined hands he may actually have believed that this was all a dream.

Sara took a breath to compose herself; trying to will some strength into her voice before she began her turn.

"Leonard," she finally started, "All my life, I thought I knew where I was going. But then I got on a boat and everything changed. I became a person who I didn't recognize, and it was only after meeting you that I realized I had been staring into a fun house mirror, because the reflection I saw was warped. When I came back to life, I thought the answer to my problems was to return to being who I was before Lian Yu, but you showed me that I would much rather be the person who came off that island. My sister brought me back to life, but it was you who showed me how to live again. I promise that I will always cherish you and the second chance that you've given me, for the rest of my life. I love you Leonard." She just barely managed to finish without crying, but she did manage it.

With the vows said they each slid their wedding bands onto each other's ring fingers and when Ray finally pronounced them husband and wife Len pulled Sara to him for the kiss practically the second Ray finished talking.


	30. One Big Happy Family (Part 3)

"You know, I never thought I would actually get married." Len whispered to Sara during the reception as the two of them honored the tradition of a first dance together as husband and wife.

They had decided to hold the reception at the same place where John and Lyla had held theirs, both because it was within close proximity to the lot where they had the wedding and because it had been John who suggested the place for himself and Lyla, so it was sort of a way for Sara to include him even though he's still overseas.

"Well to be fair, I never thought my dad would agree to me marrying you, which I still can't believe he did." She chuckled in response to Leonard's statement.

"It took some convincing," Len admitted, thinking back to his conversation with Sara's father on Thanksgiving. When he had initially asked about marrying the man's daughter, well let's just say the reaction was only slightly better than what Quentin gave after he was informed of Sara's pregnancy. But once he recovered, Len was surprised to find that getting his blessing was surprisingly easier than he thought it would be.  
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_"Apology accepted," Len said once it became clear that Lance wasn't entirely comfortable with continuing. The older man had just, of all things, apologized to his daughter's boyfriend for judging him solely on his legal reputation. That had been the absolute last thing Len had expected to hear when he decided to spend Thanksgiving having a much-needed conversation with the man, but he was grateful nonetheless. "Now, running the risk of motivating you to revoke that, I have a question for you." He began, gaining Quentin's full attention. "I was wondering… what would you think of me and Sara getting married?" He drawled out the question, and much like the last time he had a conversation with the man beside him he started to wonder if maybe his heart had stopped, because his only reaction was to stare ahead blankly as if he were in a trance. He gave Quentin a minute to process the question, and then when he didn't respond he gave him another minute, and then finally when there was still no sign of a reaction in the near future he waved his hand in front of the older man's face. "Captain Lance?" He asked, finally the man in question blinked back to reality._

_"Sorry um…" He coughed, "That's uh… that a big move. But then again so was getting her pregnant." He finally said and if Leonard weren't trying to win the man over he just might have punched him in the face._

_But he is trying to win him over, so in the end he settled for clenching his jaw and pausing long enough to cool his boiling blood at the indication that the baby could be the only reason he would want a life with Sara._

_"I know this may shock you, but I never planned on getting your daughter pregnant before marrying her." He insisted, ok so the fact that he made a point to emphasize the idea of marrying Sara had pregnancy not been a factor in bringing them to this conversation was a subtle way of trying to tell Quentin that he's wrong about his intentions, you know without verbally flipping him off too much in the process._

_But it apparently worked, because once he picked up the sharp undertone of Leonard's words he seemed to regret his own, even if only slightly._

_"Let me ask you something?" He said, licking his lips before continuing on with his question. "Do you love her?"_

_Leonard held the older man's gaze for a moment upon hearing the question, partially trying to determine whether or not Quentin actually thought that answer to that could possibly be "no"._

_"More than anything," he finally replied, "Sara is one the best things, if not the best thing, to ever happen to me. I don't want to lose her." He concluded and Quentin nodded, in fact for the first time since meeting the man Len thought he might have seen a hint of acceptance in his eyes._

_"Then… how can I say no?" He asked rhetorically, Leonard could help the smile that found it's way onto his face. __  
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__Sara smirked at the comment before standing up on her toes, not that she really had to all that much in her heels, and gave Len a quick kiss just as their song ended. Len smirked just as she did this, right before he pulled away from her and spun her around to face her approaching father. He was more than ready to dance with his baby and Leonard was more than willing to step aside for him to do that. So while Sara danced with her father, Len went back to his seat where he found Lisa in hers and alone, which was odd considering Rory had been with her when he and Sara left._ _

__"Did you lose my daughter?" He teased, prompting Lisa to look up at him and roll her eyes._ _

__"Very funny," she mocked, "She needed a new diaper but by the time we realized that, Mick had her. He went to change her," she explained and upon hearing that Mick of all people had taken it upon himself to change Rory, Len became genuinely nervous._ _

__"Has Mick ever changed a diaper before?" He questioned with a skeptical eyebrow raised, but Lisa only shrugged._ _

__"Had you before you became a dad?" She asked but instantly regretted it upon seeing the deadpan glare her brother was now fixing her with._ _

__"Yes; yours." He reminded her,_ _

___"Still, that was a long time ago." She argued and Len only rolled his eyes as he finally took his seat. "Relax, if their not back soon I'll go check on them. But he's fine."_  
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__Let the record show that Mick was very far from fine._ _

__He had gotten out of the ballroom with Rory and into the men's bathroom, not really caring that the child he was bringing inside was female, when he realized that the restroom had no changing station for a baby. He figured that maybe the women's bathroom would have one; so his options were looking like they were between going and giving Rory back to Lisa, or changing her on the floor. Now being a man with some pride he wasn't going to admit defeat so easily, so he opted for the floor. He had enough sense not to lay her down on the tile floor of the bathroom, and instead went back into the hall where he promptly found a slightly secluded corner and decided it would do._ _

__"Alright kid, work with me here." He murmured as he got to his knees and set his, so far cooperating, niece on her back on the ground._ _

__He had been carrying her with one arm, and with the other hand he was holding the clean diaper and pack of baby wipes that Lisa had given him. In all honesty, he had no clue what he was doing here, but he was willing to try. He knew the first step was to get the dirty diaper off of Rory, and so he pushed up the puffy skirt of her dress before biting back a curse._ _

__"Why do you have to be wearing tights?" He grumbled, and of course just to make things worse Rory started to fuss. "Shh, don't cry." He pleaded but obviously that wasn't any help, and so once he had taken her shoes off he gave her one of them to fiddle with. "There we go," he said triumphantly, not that he had much of a reason to feel triumphant just yet._ _

__So with Rory distracted by her shoe Mick began pulling her tights off of her, lightly pinching her toes in the process because it made her giggle. That honestly brought a smile to his own face, but it quickly faded once he undid her diaper and saw that there was nothing in it. He quirked an eyebrow at this, he had been so sure that she smelled when Lisa asked him to check. But then again he really had no idea how strong the smell was supposed to be; maybe that was just the scent of the diaper. Of course she could just be wet, but Mick didn't really know how to make sure of that without sticking his hand in the diaper. He tried comparing the new diaper with the one that Rory was currently wearing, but he couldn't see much of a difference and he didn't have much time to look for one before she started kicking her legs impatiently._ _

__"Better safe than sorry," he huffed out his eventual decision, but now he was faced with yet another problem: actually changing the diaper._ _

__He had no idea how to actually get the old diaper out from under her or get the new one on. But he needed to figure it out soon because little Rory had just about lost any and all interest in her shoe and although she wasn't crying she was looking at him with a rather annoyed face as she continued to kick at his arm. He tried pushing her feet away with one hand but that only served to make her laugh._ _

__"Would you stop?" He pleaded with her, trying to keep a smile on his face and it must have worked because the words appeared to only have encouraged her._ _

__Finally, he was able to yank the old diaper out from under her and he tried to use the baby wipes to clean her up but her flailing legs made that rather difficult._ _

__"Come on, hold still." He begged but of course she didn't listen, and it was then that he heard footsteps behind him._ _

__He turned his head to see a kid that he had only met once or twice, Wally he thought his name was, walking towards the bathroom._ _

__"Hey," he spoke up and got the kid's attention. "You know how to change a diaper?" He asked, he may have been screwing his pride by doing so but at this point he didn't exactly care._ _

__Wally, who had just wanted to go to the bathroom, suddenly found himself distracted by Mick Rory and looking at him with a panicked face and a shake of his head. Obviously, he sees Rory on a somewhat regular basis, and over the past year he's slowly gotten over his hesitance towards her. She was roughly seven months old the first time he held her, not that he didn't try to put it off longer but Sara had all but shoved her daughter into his arms. She was about nine months old the first time he picked her up of his own accord, granted that was only because she had crawled right into a table and all he did was hand her off to Sara. She was almost a year the first time he was alone in a room with her, for a grand total of three minutes. So yeah, he had slowly but surely been getting more comfortable around her._ _

__But he had never tried anything related to actually taking care of her._ _

__"You ever seen it done?" Mick asked, clearly not getting the memo from Wally's terror stricken face that he had about as much an idea on how to change a diaper as the arsonist himself._ _

__"Uh… yeah but-"_ _

__"Then congratulations, you know more about this than I do." Mick cut off, moving over in an invitation for Wally to come take over._ _

__Seeing that he was in fact serious about asking him for help, Wally went over and got to his knees next to Mick._ _

__"Hey Rory," he cooed nervously as he tried to think of what he had seen Iris doing that one time he had seen her change Sara and Leonard's daughter. He remembered Iris had grabbed her feet, but that was rather difficult with her angrily kicking at him._ _

___Eventually he was able to get a grip on her ankles and lift her legs up in the air so that he could wipe her. Once he was reasonably sure that she was clean, he kept her legs in the air long enough to slip the new diaper under her and after that securing it was self-explanatory enough._  
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__"What is Cisco doing?" Laurel asked, she and Caitlin were currently sitting at a table and had spotted Lisa dancing with Cisco next to her doing… whatever it is that Cisco does when on a dance floor._ _

__"Don't worry, he's not having a seizure." Caitlin assured her friend with a laugh._ _

__"Good, because for a second there I was worried." Laurel joked just as Thea came over to join them._ _

__"Is Cisco ok?" She questioned,_ _

__"Define ok," Caitlin requested and the other two just chuckled,_ _

__"Oh I swear, if Roy dances like that at our wedding…" Thea trailed off, halting any ideas of finishing her sentence when she realized the looks that she was getting from Caitlin and Laurel. "What?" She asked defensively,_ _

__"Did he pop the question?" Laurel asked with a teasing smirk and Thea blushed before taking a small sip of her drink._ _

__"Not officially," She admitted, "But we've been talking a lot about it recently, I think he might actually be getting around to it." She said, blissfully unaware that her boyfriend was currently off in a corner and having a conversation very similar to this one with her brother; although his was probably a little more defining._ _

__Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Ray and Kendra where seated at a mostly empty table (Professor Stein being the only exception, and he was too busy spying on Jax) and enjoying each other's company. At least, they were until Ray noticed that Kendra intentionally wasn't drinking and was able to figure out what such a thing meant; she was pregnant._ _

__"Do not tell Sara," she ordered him once he had it figured out and had a huge grin spreading across his face, which quickly faded once he heard her instructions._ _

__"Why not?" He asked,_ _

__"Ray, it's her wedding day. Today is to celebrate her family, besides it's still early on. Carter and I don't want to tell people until we're sure it's going to stick." She replied quietly, keeping her voice low despite the fact that she didn't think Martin was listening and she also knew that even if he were, he wouldn't say anything._ _

__"Got it," Ray said, pulling her back from her thoughts. "But for the record," he started to continue, "It's going to stick, so congratulations." He said,_ _

__"I second that," Martin spoke up from across the table, not once looking over his shoulder at them._ _

__Kendra beamed at their words, especially since this was the first time in all her lives that her immediate reaction upon discovering herself pregnant wasn't instant fear. Instead it had been excitement, and hope, and then some fear but not fear for her future child's life. It was more like anxiety over something going wrong, and compared to the fear she's dealt with over pregnancies in her past lives, a little anxiety is something she was more than capable of handling._ _

__"Thanks guys," she said before deciding to change the subject, "Martin, what's going on with Jax?" She asked and at her words the older man finally turn his head, but when he did he rolled his eyes in frustration._ _

__"Well considering he isn't close enough for our psychic link to be of any use, I have to idea." He huffed and Ray chuckled. Jax was currently on the other side of the room with Sara's goth friend, and had been for nearly twenty minutes now._ _

__Sin was laughing at the boy who was so far refusing to leave her side, and Stein was set on subtly figuring out why._ _

__"So let me get this straight," she laughed after Jax had finished explaining himself when she told him to get lost. "You're hanging around with me, so you can piss off the old man?" She asked and Jax nodded,_ _

__"Yup," he confirmed. Initially no, that hadn't been his intentions. He just wanted to try getting back at Sin for all her mocking earlier, but when he noticed his partner watching him like the nosey pain in the neck that he is, well, the target of his antics changed. "I'm just out of his psychic range, meaning he has to figure out what I'm doing the hard way." He explained and in that moment he discovered the girl before him wearing a mischievous smirk that he had only ever seen worn on Sara's face before._ _

___"Want to do something that'll really freak him out?" She suggested and she barely gave Jax the chance to agree before she was reaching for his hand and rising to her feet, effectively bringing him with her._  
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__"Where are those two going?" Leonard questioned Sara as the two of them plus Rory made their way out of the ballroom after having been instructed to by Lyla Diggle, and passed Jax and Sin looking like they were up to something on the way._ _

__"Don't know, where are we going?" Sara asked and Len shrugged, the movement jostling their daughter just a little bit, as he was carrying her._ _

__"See, my question is, what the hell did I miss?" A new voice interrupted their conversation, a voice that was foreign to Len but struck multiple memories for Sara._ _

__Standing there, right in front of them, was John Diggle._ _

__"Dig!" Sara all but shouted, hurrying over to him as fast as she could and launching herself into his arms for a hug._ _

__Diggle smiled brightly as he caught Sara and held her tightly in an embrace before pulling away._ _

__"Seriously, I know I've been gone awhile, but you are the last person I expected to be married with a baby when I came back." He all but scolded her, a playful tone in his voice that made her laugh as he looked over at Leonard and held out a hand. "John Diggle," he introduced himself and Len accepted the handshake with the arm that wasn't supporting his daughter._ _

__"Leonard Snart, Raymond told me I should watch out for you." He said and Dig snickered at the reminder of his first meeting with Ray Palmer._ _

__"True, but he was with Felicity. You hurt Sara and I'm not the one you'll need to be watching out for," he teased and Len smirked,_ _

__"Don't I know it," he agreed and Sara took Rory from him, only to direct the little girl's attention towards Diggle._ _

__"This is Uncle John," she said to the baby, "Do you want to go say hi?" She asked while John crouched down just enough to look his 'niece' in the eyes._ _

__"Hi sweetie," he said with a wave and Sara tried handing her over but she started crying almost immediately._ _

__"Oh Rory, it's ok. It's ok baby." She tried to assure her daughter but it wasn't working and the little girl only wound her arms tighter around Sara's neck, the same goes for her legs around her waist. "I'm sorry, she's getting tired." She apologized to Dig who didn't look offended in the least._ _

___"It's ok," he all but whispered in a baby voice that he had used on his own daughter so many times, who he had already seen along with her mother._  
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__"So what do you think?" Mick found himself asking Rip once he found the Englishman standing off in a corner by himself._ _

__"I think…" Rip began, looking for the right words. "I think they're going to be very happy together." He finally decided on and Mick nodded._ _

__"You think or you know?" He asked just before taking a swig of his beer._ _

__"I think," Rip confirmed, "As I've said before, the timeline changed when I went back and recruited you all. I never thought about what would happen to you once I brought you back, never considered that you wouldn't simply return to your normal lives." He mused and again Mick nodded._ _

__"Thanks," he muttered, garnering a shocked glare from his captain. "I'm not going to say it again," he growled the warning before directing his attention to a suddenly interesting spot on the wall across the room._ _

__Rip just smirked before leaving Mick to his own devices, off to go locate the rest of their team and see if anybody was ready to head out or not._ _

__Len was having the same thought as Rip; only he was looking for Sara. In the process, however, he instead found Lisa with her head on her boyfriend's shoulder as he sat next to her and talked to Iris about something. Maybe on any other day he would scowl at the scene and go to pull her off of Ramon, but tonight he just smiled. It had been a long time since Lisa had been about to fall asleep in a room full of people, and he knew at least part of that was because she never felt safe enough to let her guard down that much. Sure he'd done what he could to take the brunt of everything so that she could keep her innocence and good spirit for as long as possible. All things considered he'd like to think that he'd done a pretty good job. But this still warmed his heart, to see Lisa so relaxed around all these people, and even for him to be at ease himself. These people, even Allan and Raymond, had become family to him over the course of the last two years. And tonight they were all together, gathered like most people do to celebrate a wedding, as something Leonard never thought he would be a part of:_ _

__One big happy family._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of the story! I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone whose been reading and commenting, you guys are the best!


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